


Halcyon Days

by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl



Series: Tales From the Tower [21]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-10-09 08:48:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 84,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10408389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyxEtoile/pseuds/NyxEtoile, https://archiveofourown.org/users/OlivesAwl/pseuds/OlivesAwl
Summary: That made Pepper smile. "I love you. You know that?""I do know that. Because I love you, too.""I thought, last year, that I would be fine to do this alone. But I'm really glad you're here."He stroked her hair off her face. "Nowhere I'd rather be, than right here."She smiled, and sighed, and could see her relax. He'd noticed his ability to do that had increased. Like she had a button he pressed that released tension. "Would you like anything when you wake up next? Books? Movies? New earrings?"He could see her actually considering it, which was good. He wanted an honest answer and not just her telling him she was fine. "Really good wool socks, and then I want to watch Phantom of the Opera.""Stage version or that thing with the glassy eyed chick and Leonidas?""The second one. Though the scariest thing is that I think you might actually be capable of smuggling an entire stage musical into my hospital room."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> People have asked for a Missing Floor about what Tony and Pepper were up to during various points in Tales. . . and somehow that mushroomed into a 24 chapter fic that winds through the entire series (which covers about a decade). It kind of assumes you've read at least a good chunk of the rest of the series. It will spoil nearly every story if you haven't. (You may also want to read [Ring of Fire](/works/1801936/), which is not technically in this universe but the exact same thing happened here, just before this story starts.) We did the best we could not to violate continuity, but we may have missed something, and apologize. 
> 
> I'm going to try and label chapters where the occur. 
> 
> The title is from Mary Chapin Carpenter's _Jubliee_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chronologically, the earliest date in Tales is in 2007, which takes place in [Between the Shadow and the Soul](/works/2539478/). It's non-linear, and the three Clintasha stories are the only ones occurring between then and the fall of SHIELD (and now this one).

_May, 1985_

Turning on the waterworks had convinced the school's driver to let her get off at the stop across the street from the hospital. Pepper felt bad about summoning tears, but it wasn’t as if she didn’t have plenty of sadness to draw them from. Her mom was dying.

But Pepper wasn’t the type to lay on the floor and cry. She just wanted to save her Dad the hassle of having to come get her from home—or save the time she’d waste walking. You could waste time walking when you had lots of years to spend with your Mom. Pepper didn’t have that. Time mattered.

The big glass doors slid open, and she marched straight to the elevator without looking at anyone. She didn’t have time for "Are you lost honey?" and other questions from concerned adult who thought she couldn’t possibly make her way down a hallway by herself.

Up to three, down the hall, left twice, and there was her Mom’s room. 

The walls were decorated with pictures she’d drawn and projects from school. It was a hospital room but it was cheery. Her mom was sitting up in bed, watching TV, but she smiled and turned it off when she saw Pepper. "Hi, sweetie."

"Hi, Mama." She gave her a very careful hug. When she hugged her mother now, she could feel all her bones. "Daddy got overtime, so I came by myself."

"Come sit with me. Tell me about school."

She climbed up and say cross-legged on the bed. "They were teaching us about inheritance in science class. Like I have red hair because Daddy has red hair."

"That’s true. Your grandmom had red hair, too. My mom."

Pepper didn’t really remember her grandmother. She’d died when she was a little girl. Just a vague haze of a face and smells, and a lullaby she liked to sing. Hands swiftly clicking knitting needles. They’d gone to visit her in the hospital. "Gram had cancer like you."

"Yes, she did," Mama replied, watching Pepper’s face.

"Like Aunt Lucy and Aunt Shelly?"

This "Yes," was much quieter.

Now came the question she’d been wondering about for a while now. "Me too? When I’m grown?"

She watched Mama’s eyes fill with tears, which was pretty much an answer, she thought. But Mama said, "I don’t know, Pepper." She looked like she needed a hug, so Pepper cuddled up next to her, being careful of the tubes attached to her arm. Mama kissed the top of her head. "I wish I could promise you no. I wish I could take it away."

Mama sounded so sad, it took her a while to ask the next question. "And if I have a daughter?"

"It could be," Mama finally said. Clearly, this was a like a curse in a fairy tale. She wondered if she found the right magic, the right prince charming, the right witch, the right elves or gnomes or whatever she needed to banish the curse. How hard could it be?

*  
_January 2011_

When her mother died, Pepper stood at the funeral and decided that simplest answer was to simply not spread the curse. She would not leave a little girl standing by a graveside. 

She was in college when they found the gene. She was working for Stark Industries before she finally had good enough insurance to be tested for it. Official, scientific proof that she carried the curse was frightening, and strangely liberating. It’s an odd thing to know what’s going to kill you.

The answer was surprisingly simple, in the end. Remove the defective and dangerous parts. Her odds of breast cancer were something north of 80%. The surgery and recovery would be difficult, but the decision wasn’t. 

"I'm sorry, but this is killing me. Are you looking at a boob catalog?"

She and Tony were on the Stark jet, flying back from spending Christmas in Hawaii. She lowered the screen a little and looked over at him. "Yes. I am browsing amazon-dot-boob for a new pair."

"Why is this the first time I've heard about the dot-boob domain? Do we own stark-dot-boob?"

"No, I think it's a porn site featuring breasts photoshopped onto Iron Man."

He paused. "Good photoshop or thirteen year old boy one-handed photoshop?"

She laughed. "Okay, now the joke is getting gross." She closed her laptop all the way and turned towards him. "The surgeon sent me before and after pictures. Just trying to get my head around it, I guess."

To his credit, his face turned serious. "Should I make an omelet for this conversation." Of course, serious with Tony only went so far.

"Shouldn't _I_ be making the omelet in this case?"

"No, see, when I'm giving you bad news about me I'm making you the omelet to comfort you. And when you're telling me bad news about you than the omelet is still to comfort you."

She reached out and slid her hand into his. "Thank you. But I'm okay sans omelet. Especially since it's like 9PM." She rubbed her eyes. "It's just a big deal. And I don't mean just the surgery. I'm going to try not to complain about that, seeing as you had major surgery in a cave." 

"Yeah, but I barely remember it." He squeezed her hand. "You keep everything inside. It's who you are and I'm not really in a place to throw stones about it. But if you want to complain or whine or demand soup or ice packs or jewelry or whatever will make you feel better, then I want you to do that. Give yourself permission to need things. Okay?"

She felt an odd lump in her throat. "Okay." He gave her hand a little tug, and she let him pull her over. He wrapped an arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. "There are going to be three surgeries. One preparatory, the mastectomy and then the implants. It will take about three months in total." 

He rubbed her arm lightly, rhythmically. "All right. When do they start?"

"The end of the month. Jarvis has all the dates."

"Right. What would help you? Do you need a nurse for home? Have you cleared my calendar?"

"I will get a nurse if there are medical needs. And that's why I told Jarvis. I'd like it if you came to the hospital. It would be really nice if you could come stay at my house or I could come stay at yours for a bit after. It would be good not to be alone."

He pressed a kiss into her hair. "Of course. Come stay with me. I have plenty of room for a nurse if you need one. And Jarvis can help look after you. He likes you."

"I should hope so, you did program him." She blew out a breath. "There's going to be a period there were things are pretty gross. Afterward they'll look different, I'll lose a lot of feeling in them. . . and there's probably going to be a period of some extent with no sex."

The sheer drama of his sigh warned her what was coming. "Time to start working on the sex bot again."

That made her laugh. She appreciated that no matter what, he would probably always make her laugh. "There's a company that makes highly realistic silicon sex dolls."

"I am aware of Realdolls, thankyouverymuch."

She deliberately let the silence stretch. "Is there one in a closet somewhere?"

"Not that you'll ever find," he told her, kissing her hair again. 

"I was thinking of maybe getting the new ones a little bigger," she offered.

Now he let the silence stretch. "Don't toy with me, Pepper."

She leaned back to look up at him. "You're saying to don't want me to have gigantic tatas? Didn't you used to bang swimsuit models?"

"Swimsuit models actually have fairly average breasts. Otherwise the suit wouldn't look good in the pictures. The rest is photoshop." He grinned. "Our conversation has come full circle."

Pepper laughed again, and then sat up. "Okay. This is not a loaded, no-right-answer, 'am I fat' entrapment kind of question. I promise. I'm honestly on the fence, and you definitely look at them more than I do. They are small. Half a cup size, maybe?" 

He leaned back to peer at her. For a moment he didn't look at her the way he normally did, but more the way he might study a problem he needed to take apart. "Half a cup, if you really want to, your frame can't handle more than that. You're too fine boned, long limbed. And keep in mind even that much of a bump up will likely change your posture and shirt size."

"I like buying clothes." She leaned forward to kiss his mouth. "Thank you."

He made a little pleased noise and touched her cheek. "You're welcome. Why?"

"That was a engineer's answer and it was useful."

"Ah. Truly, I have managed the impossible."

"And thank you for being here. I'm a little scared, and it helps."

He stroked her hair back from her face. "After everything you've put up with from me, I can be here for you for this." He kissed her lightly. "You're all I've got."

*

The first surgery, Pepper had insist she was fine in a regular hospital room. And she probably was, given the amount of morphine she got. Tony, however, was stuck sitting in the regular waiting room. There were other people in there who asked him for autographs. Asked him why he was there. As much as he dodged it, by the time she woke up the internet rumor mill that stalked everything he or his company did—no matter how petty—was working on all sort of crazy theories.

His personal favorite was the rumor that Pepper had just had a baby, because the internet though that was all they did at Cedars-Sinai. The explanations for her being slim-waisted on CNN just three days previously were pretty hilarious.

For the second surgery, he insisted on a private suite. He was not sitting out there and getting pestered for seven hours. He'd wondered if he'd go stir-crazy with the waiting, since he couldn't bring much to tinker with, but people kept dropping by. It didn't take him long to realize that they were showing up at regular, well timed intervals. As if some very organized person had put them on a schedule.

He expected the next one at 2:15. Sure enough, Pepper's assistant Jess wandered in precisely on time.

"Can I get a copy of the schedule?" he asked. "I want to know who to expect next."

"I told her we should have randomized the times." She plopped down in the chair across from him, and kicked off her very high heels. Romanov had hired her, and she was—if Tony was being objective—the hottest assistant that had ever sat in that chair. Except maybe Romanov herself. He did have a fondness for red hair. Jess was blonde, and very stereotypically gorgeous. She was also in a long term relationship with another woman. 

Especially since she'd hadn't known he was about to get himself into a serious relationship. . . Romanov's sense of humor was world class.

"I appreciate that in the middle of her surgery planning she put effort into making sure I wasn't bored." He tipped his head back to look at the ceiling. "Though I wish I could convince her to stop worrying about me."

"That's how love works. You always worry more for them than yourself."

He had entirely different conversations now than he did a year ago. People in committed relationships seemed to have their own code. And everything was an opening to talk about your relationship. He wasn't complaining. But the phenomena was interesting. "I just feel there are certain circumstances in which selfishness is not only allowed, but accepted. Major surgery is on that list."

"Maybe fussing over you helps distract her from worrying about herself," Jess offered. 

That was actually a good point. It would be very her. "Well. Thanks for coming."

Jess shrugged. "I'm worried about her, too. She's a great boss." She opened her phone and tapped on it. "I sent you a list of suggestions, if you wanted to get her a 'get well soon' gift."

"I already bought her a pair of Louboutins and a matching purse." He was getting better at his own shopping. "But I'll keep the list for future reference."

She clapped. "Very nice." 

"Spending money. That I can do." They were even wrapped. Waiting on his bed back home for when she was released from the hospital. Whenever he bought her things he thought of his father buying his mother the same fancy hat twice, and his mother pretending to be surprised. Fortunately, Pepper seemed genuinely happy to have a closetful of virtually identical black pumps.

There was a knock on the door, and the surgeon stepped inside. She was smiling. Tony liked Pepper's doctor. She seemed highly competent, was absolutely the best in her field, and his inner nerd was convinced her last name being McCoy was a good omen. "Mr. Stark," she said. "Everything went well."

"Music to my ears," he said sincerely.

"She's in recovery now. She's still out, but you are welcome to come sit in the room. A lot of women really like having their partners there when they wake up."

He hauled himself to his feet. "I think I'd really like being there, too." He bowed to Jess. "Thanks for the chat."

"I'll hangout here for a bit if you guys need anything," she said.

Dr. McCoy led him down the hallways to a small room where Pepper was. There was another bed in there, but no one was in it. A nurse was on her way out, and he could see her eyes widen as she recognized him. She looked down at his chest, at the light, for confirmation. People always did.

"She should be awake soon," the doctor was saying. "She'll be pretty loopy. Generally, we'll move her back to her regular room in about two hours." She gestured at the small chair. "Make yourself comfortable. Nurses will be in frequently to monitor her."

He wondered how many of them would ask for autographs. He folded himself into the little chair and made himself as comfortable as possible, which wasn't much. He peered at the various monitors and nothing seemed to be red or beeping urgently, so he stretched out his legs and watched her sleep in a way that wasn't creepy at all.

Some time, and a nurse's visit, passed before her eyes fluttered opened. He watched her blink sleepily at the ceiling, before turning her head enough to see him. Her smile was slow, but genuine. "Hi."

He leaned forward and covered her hand. "Hi there."

"I dreamed they installed two arc reactors where my boobs used to be."

He couldn't help but chuckle. "I could arrange that, if you wanted."

"They would be like real headlights," she told him, as seriously as someone who'd clearly had enough narcotics to stun Keith Richards could sound.

"It would probably complicate sex a bit," he told her. It would be wrong to record this. He was a good boyfriend and would leave his phone in his pocket.

"Please. Which one of us frequently has sex with a flashlight shining in her eyes? Not you. Unless you hump your mirror."

"I made it a cover," he said defensively.

She blinked slowly. "Your mirror?"

He grinned. He was, of course, going to recite this for her at a later date. "No. The reactor. Maybe you should get some more sleep."

She did close her eyes, but said. "Can't. I have a staff meeting at three."

"Play hooky," he said quietly, rubbing her hand. "Stay with me."

"Easy for you. . .You don't have a job." Her voice was a little more slurred this time.

"Sure I do. I take care of you." She didn't reply, but her hand tightened on his as she drifted off. He sat there holding it until a different nurse bustled in. 

"Good afternoon," she said cheerfully. She checked Pepper's monitors and IV, and then looked at the chart. "Are you Mr. Potts?"

Well, she wouldn't be getting an autograph. Still, he'd been called worse things. "That's me," he said.

"Has she woken up at all?" She looked up over the top of the chart. She looked right at him. 

"Briefly. Said hi. Told me she had to get to a staff meeting at 3. I convinced her to play hooky."

"I should hope so," the woman said. "Has she filled out the proper paperwork with her job? They're legally required to give her time off. Twelve weeks if needed."

What did this woman do when she wasn't working that she had no idea who he was? Or Pepper, for that matter. It had kind of made news when she'd become CEO. "It's taken care of. She's very thorough."

"Good, good." She stuck the chart back in it's holder. "Neat shirt, with the little lights," she commented to him. She apparently thought he was wearing a shirt with little LEDs in it. Or something. "Press the call button when she wakes up again?"

"Will do," he promised. "What was your name?"

She smiled at him. "My name is Marilyn."

"It's nice to meet you Marilyn, thank you." Marilyn was about to get her mortgage anonymously paid. Or her student loans cleared. Something. It had been a long time since someone hadn't recognized him. Longer still since someone had been nice for no reason. Made him feel spontaneously altruistic.

After she was gone, he Pepper slept for a little bit longer. When she opened her eyes again they looked a bit clearer. "Hey," she said.

"Hello again. They told me to call the nurse when you woke up."

"Probably wise. More painkillers might be good." She pointed. "I think that's the button."

He found it and pressed it, then leaned over to kiss her forehead. "We had a really interesting conversation earlier."

"Did I ask you to marry me?"

"No. Mostly tried to go to work. Complained about my reactor."

The door opened and Marilyn came back in. "That was fast." 

She stopped and swallowed. "The other nurses just told me. I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark. I'm from Canada and I don't really watch TV."

Well, that hadn't taken long. "It's really all right. I enjoyed not being recognized for once."

"Oh. They said you'd be mad." She looked at Pepper. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I'm going to live to see sixty," she said. "Also that I'd like more morphine, and the fans annoy the hell out of Tony. I've just had my breasts removed, it's a good time to just be regular people."

He hooked a thumb at her. "What she said."

Marilyn patted her hand. "Then we'll do just that." She adjusted the morphine and lifted the sheet to change the dressings. He wasn't sure if he should look away, but all he could really see was bloody bandages, and she'd had her hand down the hole in his chest. "We can move you to your room soon."

"It's a nice room," he told Pepper. "I've had so many visitors keeping me company there."

"Good," she said. She squeezed his hand. "Didn't want you to be alone."

"I appreciate it," he assured her. "Jess and I bonded."

She grimaced, as whatever the nurse was doing must have hurt. "I sent her last. She had all the paperwork."

He frowned. "Paperwork?"

"Stuff to to do and that needed dealing with if I died."

Sometimes her efficiency and thoroughness was disturbing. He squeezed her hand gently. "Dodged that bullet," was all he said.

"We're getting good at that, you and I." 

Marilyn finished and tucked the blanket back down. "I'll send the orderlies in shortly to wheel you to your room."

"Thank you," Pepper said.

Tony waited until the nurse left before leaning over to whisper to Pepper conspiratorially, "I'm going to spend a lot of money on her. I hope you don't mind."

That got him a smile. "I love you. You know that?"

"I do know that. Because I love you, too."

"I thought, last year, that I would be fine to do this alone. But I'm really glad you're here."

He stroked her hair off her face. "Nowhere I'd rather be, than right here."

She smiled, and sighed, and could see her relax. He'd noticed his ability to do that had increased. Like she had a button he pressed that released tension. It was a fascinating phenomenon. He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Would you like anything when you wake up next? Books? Movies? New earrings?"

He could see her actually considering it, which was good. He wanted an honest answer and not just her telling him she was fine. "Really good wool socks, and then I want to watch Phantom of the Opera."

"Stage version or that thing with the glassy eyed chick and Leonidas?"

"The second one. Though the scariest thing is that I think you might actually be capable of smuggling an entire stage musical into my hospital room. Since you're you."

"I was thinking more live broadcast from wherever it's playing right now. But if you want to challenge me. . ."

"I am happy with a selection of girly movies that usually make you complain."

If this didn't prove he loved her nothing would. "As you wish."


	2. Chapter 2

Pepper only needed to stay in the hospital two days, since she would have nursing care at home. It was almost certainly overkill that Tony had hired a nurse to live in his house for several weeks after the surgery, but it did mean that he didn't need to deal with bandages or drainage tubes. She hadn't gotten the nerve up to look under the bandages herself, let alone allow him to see.

The massive movie library stored on his house's servers had acquired a sudden uptick in chick flicks. Also, her wool sock collection had tripled. And half of them appeared hand knit. She was a little concerned he had some sort of grandma sweat shop working around the clock making her these things. And was therefore having a moral quandary because, seriously, they were nice socks.

Tony was attentive without hovering, which was a trick she hadn't expected him to be able to pull off. It helped that he was dealing with designers and builders working on the new building in New York, plus the work he was doing in the basement. 

The nurse made her get up and walk around a lot, so one afternoon she went down to the workshop. He looked up, alarmed, when she opened the door. She held up a hand before he could speak. "I know I could have had Jarvis summon you. I wanted to come down. It's good for me."

He didn't look entirely convinced, but he got up and rolled a chair over to her. "How are you doing?"

"A little stir crazy. I was hoping you'd let me look at the building plans."

Surprise flickered over his face, but he smiled. "Sure. Jarvis, bring them up." At his words blue prints filled the screens in front of her. 

She walked closer to study them. "Permits all done?" The last meeting she'd had before the surgery, everything was lined up—but it was New York City. You never knew. They were replacing the top half of the Met Life Building.

"Chiseled in stone," he replied. "I have lawyers waiting solely for the opportunity to whip them out if someone complains."

"We employ more lawyers than a law firm," she said, not as a complaint. She leaned closer, touching the screen to move the floorplans around and zoom in. The room labeled 'master bath' had a huge tub sunk in the middle of the floor. She hadn't seen that on earlier sketches she'd seen. “You actually put a tub in the middle of the floor?” They’d stayed at a resort that had one and she’d loved it.

"You did request it," he said. He'd gone back to whatever he was tinkering with. "Seemed a good idea to fulfill it, since I had the opportunity."

She watched him a moment. He was very deliberately not looking at her. "I have some questions."

"I have answers. Let's see if they match."

"Who is knitting the socks, and why won't Jarvis let me watch Steel Magnolias?"

His hands stopped moving and he glanced up at her. Obviously, she'd surprised him. "Jess's mother. And a woman dies in the movie, Pepper." He looked back at his gadget. "I'm told it's extremely sad. Neither of us need those images. You need to cry you can watch The Notebook and like it."

She came around his table. "I'm not dying, Tony," she said quietly.

"You're the one who had Jess bring what-if-I-die paperwork to the hospital."

She touched his arm. "Surgery is dangerous. I just wanted to minimize the hassle on you if something bad should happen."

He slid his arm around her waist, tugging her onto his lap. He rested his chin on her shoulder a moment. "I don't think you're going to drop dead tonight," he said gruffly. "Doesn't mean I want to watch it in a movie."

She touched her forehead to his. All of the fussing and the fixing was his way of dealing with his worry, she knew that. "I suppose we've had enough brushes with death."

"I will tolerate the chick flicks. I just prefer they be non fatal." He kissed her lightly. 

She had a fleeting urge to take that kiss somewhere. It was only fleeting, between the painkillers and the mess her chest was. But the ghost of desire was nice. She missed him. "I accept your terms."

He leaned back to look at her. "The socks are pretty good though, huh?"

"The socks are amazing. I might need you to turn the air up so I can wear them more."

"I can make that happen," he told her. "I will let Mrs. Jess's Mom know you approve."

"You have been really wonderful, and very not-you about all this. Thank you."

"Did you just thank me for acting out of character?"

"I thanked you for restraining some of your more annoying personality traits while I am recuperating, yes."

He tipped his head farther back, considering that. "I have been remarkably restrained, haven't I?"

"You have. Would you like to come upstairs and watch an action movie with me?"

She imagined the look his currently had on his face resembled the one he'd had as a child on Christmas morning. "I would really enjoy that, yes."

"Just as long as we don't watch any where the hero's girl dies just to prove how evil the villain is and to give the hero motivation for revenge." 

"I accept your terms."

She stood up, careful of the various medical things taped to her, and slid her hand into his. "I'm going to go get some socks."

*

_July, 2011_

It had been an odd couple of months. At least, it seemed odd to Tony. He was busy with the new building going up in New York. It shouldn't need his personal supervision, but clearly it did, as he had very high standards. Pepper was very busy running his company. Which he usually appreciated, but since she'd moved back into her own place after her medical leave ended in March, they'd been like ships passing in the night. Rushed dinners, half-dressed sex, and long distance phone calls. It wasn't entirely a complaint—they were very busy and independent people, and he had never wanted a girlfriend who was in his face all the time. But he had also long grown accustomed to seeing Pepper every day, and now once a week was a luxury. He still had not actually seen her new breasts, which he was starting to think was deliberate.

Disassembly and partial demolition of the top half of his building had finished, and the cranes were in place to begin construction. Pepper had been in very long meetings all week with people from the EPA down in DC, but was on her way up to New York. They were supposed to grab dinner.

He had room service set up on the terrace, a dress for Pepper hanging on the bathroom door, and 8PM tickets to Phantom of the God Damn Opera—which he had previously refused to take at least seven or eight girlfriends to. 

He was fastening his cufflinks in the bathroom when he heard the suite door open. "I hope that's you!" he called. "And not a very persistent fangirl."

"The fangirl only made it as far as the elevator, and then I had to kick her ass," Pepper replied. "I hate our government, I really do. It's like all the assholes in the world distilled in one room." He could hear the sound of her flopping on the couch. "You want to just get some Chinese delivered?" 

With a sudden sense that his carefully planned evening was about to go haywire, he walked out into the main room in his extremely well tailored suit. "There's room service on the terrace. Lots of chocolate. All of the chocolate in New York is on the terrace right now."

She looked up at him, in the middle of wrestling out of her suit jacket. She blinked in surprise. "You're wearing a tie. You're wearing _the_ tie.” For his last birthday—the one where he’d trashed his house fighting with Rhodey, after dumping his company on her—she’d given him a bland tie she’d had Natasha purchase in an attempt to give him the most impersonal birthday gift she could. The Spite Tie eventually turned into something personal between them; an in-joke, a touchstone.

"It's my Taking Pepper Somewhere I'll Probably Hate tie."

"We're going somewhere?" She paused. "That you hate?"

He dug in his pocket and pulled out an envelope. "Orchestra seats for Phantom. Good seats. Andrew Lloyd Webber couldn't get you better seats. I'm told the chandelier falls right past our heads."

She stood up. "Wow, yeah, you are going to hate it. You know it's way longer than the movie, right?"

"I am aware how long Broadway shows take, Pep."

For a moment he thought she might argue with him, but instead she leaned in and kissed him. "Did you get me a dress?"

"In the bathroom," he murmured on her mouth. He slid his arms around her and deepened the kiss a moment, because he could. She leaned in at first, but pulled back before he wanted her to. 

"Dinner's outside?" she asked as she started towards the terrace. He followed so he could appreciate her reaction to the elaborate spread and fire hazard worth of candelabras he'd had them set up. There was very soft, "Wow," that he found satisfying.

He dropped a kiss on the back of her neck. "I love you."

She leaned back against him. "This is way more than an omelet. You're not dying again, are you?"

He laughed. "No. We just haven't had a night alone together in a while. Thought a little spoiling might be overdue."

She nodded, and let him guide her to the table. He could see her unwind while they ate, telling him about her adventures with government officials, and Stark lobbyists. After the meal, and full of French wine, she went to get dressed for the theatre. She used to let him watch her dress for something like this; the rolling on of stockings, the wandering about in lingerie while she fussed with her hair. But now she took her things and the dress into the bathroom and shut the door.

He was going to need to broach that topic, he realized. This didn't read like the wait before a grand unveiling. This was avoidance. Not now, he didn't want to pick a fight before the theater. But before one of them had to rush off to another round of meetings, they needed to talk about her boobs.

She did look rather beautiful when she emerged, and she was smiling. The show was better than he expected—live theatre, like live sporting events, was always better. Also the main character was far less vapid looking, allowing him to avoid the heckling he'd been unable to contain during the movie.

He took her arm as they left the theater. "More chocolate? Or back to the hotel?"

"I think I'm about full of chocolate." The car was waiting for them, and she put her head on his shoulder as they drove. He rubbed her arm, letting his fingers trace little patterns that made her shiver. He pressed a kiss into her hair, but remained silent, enjoying the peace as the car made its way through the city traffic. 

They held hands walking through the lobby, and he kissed her in the elevator. She let him take her hair down in the hallway. In the living room, she peeled his jacket off, and he let her toss it on the floor. But when he reached for her zipper, she went very still, and not in a good way. 

"Just let me change."

And apparently it was awkward conversation time. "Why can't I undress you?" he asked, kissing her neck, careful to keep the words non-accusatory.

"This is a strapless dress and I don't have anything under it."

"So? I've seen you naked. I quite enjoy you naked."

He could see her flailing for a logical answer. "We're in the living room. The lights are on."

"We've had sex on the kitchen table of the Malibu house in the middle of day." He kissed her mouth, then leaned back to ask gently, "You don't want me to see them?"

"I don't—" She scrunched up her face and looked down. "I don't know."

He slid a hand up and rubbed her neck, thumb and forefinger digging into taut muscle. "Talk to me, sweetheart."

"They're different. I don't like them and I can't feel anything. Like something foreign that is now part of me that I have to look at every day. Well, not every day, I actually try not to. I like you seeing me how I was before, I guess. It's a jumble."

That was a bit of a conundrum. He'd liked her breasts before. He'd expected to enjoy the new ones just as well. But if she didn't get anything out of it then he didn't want her to make her self conscious. "Is lack of sensation normal? I can't believe every woman with fake tits can't feel them."

"Those women had implants added to their existing breasts. Mine were completely removed. All of the insides anyway. They did save my nipples, which makes them appear more normal. But they're pretty much just for looks. Like the numb skin around the reactor." She sighed. "I did warn you about this."

"Hey." He ducked his head to catch her eye. "I don't care. All right? I want you. All of you. If you need time then I'm not going to rush you. Wear a tank top to bed every night if you want. I just want to make you happy. And I want to fix anything I can that makes you unhappy."

She looked up at him, her eyes suspiciously damp. But he didn't comment. Pepper liked to pretend she didn't cry. "I feel ridiculous. You have a giant glowstick stuck in your chest. Why am I afraid to show you mine?" 

He stroked her hair. "It's really more of a tap light. Like on the informercials?"

That made her laugh. "And now I've made a big deal out of it, which is probably going to make it worse."

"Nah." He fiddled with her zipper. "We've had way worse conversations and I've still wanted to have sex with you afterwards."

She took his hand. "Come on. Come in the bedroom." He wove his fingers with hers, letting her lead him back to the other room. Once there, he turned on an accent lamp but left the overhead lights off. He was good at compromise. In return she presented him with her back, pulling her hair over her shoulder to indicate he should unzip her dress. He did so, dropping kisses along her spine as her skin was revealed. He slid the dress down to pool at her feet, then wrapped his arms around her waist, tugging her back against his chest so he could kiss her shoulder, her neck. From the top, at least what he could see peering over her shoulder, they looked pretty much the same to him. 

Finally she took a breath and turned around. From the front he could see the scars, still angry and red, though he knew they'd fade. He'd seen his share of implants in years past, and they had a characteristic shape to them, which he could see. But to be objective they were actually quite good; her surgeons had known what they were doing. 

He cupped her waist in his hands and tugged her close, kissing her. "Do you think you got a new sensitive spot? Like when you lose a sense the others get stronger? Maybe you have a new erogenous zone I can find."

"Does that really happen? Or is it just projection?" She slowly untied the Spite Tie and tossed it onto the bed, and began working on the buttons of his shirt.

"The sense thing? There's evidence it's real." She untucked the shirt to get the last of the buttons and he peeled it off, leaving him in just his undershirt. "I'm happy to run experiments on the erogenous thing."

"I think I might like that." He had a couple of undershirts with blackout fabric panels in them, for things that required darkness, like theaters, where even the faint glow beneath multiple layers of clothes could be seen—else ushers came and asked him to turn off his 'cell phone'. He'd half expected her to ask him to leave it on, to hide the light, but she tugged his undershirt up and off. "You can touch them, if you want," she said hesitantly.

"You're sure?" Sometimes it was hard to tell when her martyr impulses were coming out. "If it doesn't do anything for you. . ."

"If it does something for you, then that does something for me." She looked up at him. "That's the logic that provides blow jobs, Tony, don't fight it."

"You make a compelling and valid argument," he agreed. He cupped her waist again, feeling a little boorish going right for the goods. He kissed her again, putting his A game into it, before sliding his hands up to cup her breasts. He made an effort to be gentle, just in case the scars were still tender.

The texture was different, firmer than natural ones ever were. And they were a tad bigger. He rubbed his thumbs across the tips, circling her nipples to see if there was a reaction. Nothing, sadly. Didn't even pebble up. 

He was surprised when she leaned back and looked down, watching his hands. "I can't really feel it, but my brain thinks I can. Sense memory is such a funny thing," she said softly.

"So you _think_ it's doing something for you?"

"Yes. Maybe. I'm just saying I'm finding this a little erotic, despite not feeling anything."

He kissed her shoulder, then along the line of her clavicle. "They say sex is half mental."

"It can be all mental," she replied. "In the right circumstances, I can have an orgasm without any touching at all."

Pausing his exploration, he leaned back to look at her face. "Why am I only hearing about this _now_?"

She laughed. "I think it seems sexier in your head than reality."

One hand slid around her back and down to cup her ass. "How did you acquire this knowledge?"

She lifted her arms, winding them around his neck. "Trial and error. Long plane rides. Smutty books."

He hauled her up against his body, kissing her as he backed her up towards the bed. "I will never be able to fly with you in peace again."

She stretched to nibble on his earlobe. "We have plenty of sex on that plane."

"Apparently, you're having more I don't know about." He tipped her back on the bed, going down with her to capture her mouth again. They kissed for a while, and then he lifted his head, and set out on his search for other erogenous spots. Just when he thought he had her memorized, she had become a new puzzle again, and he loved puzzles.

He didn't find any that stood out. But by the time he'd kissed every inch of her she was breathing hard and squirming. He spread her legs wide, settling between them to bring his mouth to her sex, sucking her clit between his teeth with no preamble. The sound she made was absolutely delightful. He took his time, even though he pretty much had the combination to her locks down cold. He liked it if he could get her to beg him and yank on his hair.

When she was suitably desperate he let his fingers join the party, sliding deep inside to stroke her while his tongue worked on that long memorized combination. No one had ever told him how much fun a long term partner could be. Or, if they had, he hadn't believed them. Like magic, she screamed and bucked against him, and he could feel it ripple through her body. She made a very satisfied noise, lifting her head just enough so she could see him. She really was her most beautiful at times like this.

He laid a smacking kiss on her thigh before moving up her body, dropping light kisses on her skin until he reached her mouth. "Gorgeous," he murmured against her lips. 

"Idle flattery," she murmured, sounding very pleased. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he braced his arms so he didn't bruise her with the reactor—especially not on her new breasts. They had to be the only couple on the planet for whom missionary was the most precarious position. He briefly considered rolling them, but she seemed to be enjoying him being in charge. So he ducked his head to kiss her as he slid slowly inside her.

She lifted her hips to meet him, breathing a sigh against his lips. This, right now, was one of the only times his damn brain ever shut off. The only time his thoughts were ever quiet. He nuzzled at her hair, taking a deep breath and staying still a moment, just luxuriating in the feel of her around him. Then he kissed her ear and began to move, slipping into just the right rhythm for her. Her nails scraped down his back, adding just a touch of pain as she moved with him, pushing and pulling in perfect time. They were so damn good at this.

After an eternity that would never be long enough he felt her arch up to him, her body flexing tightly around him. He groaned, the sound vibrating through him and he thrust harder, a few fast, deep strokes until he found his own release, buried inside her.

His arms nearly gave out, but before he could move off her, she pulled him down. "It's all right, they're like pillows," she murmured.

He did adore her sense of humor. He pressed his face into her hair again and sighed in content. "Didn't want to crush you."

She rubbed her foot along his calf. "I'm just fine." She was quiet a moment. "Thank you."  
 "Honey I enjoyed that at least as much as you did."

She ruffled his hair. "Tony. You know what I meant."

He kissed her shoulder. "It's my job to lighten the mood." She chuckled, and made a contented sound. When he could make his limbs work he got up to turn off the light, and she turned down the blankets. He crawled between sheets and pulled her close. 

Pepper traced her fingers around the edge of the reactor. "You know my mother wasn't able to have hers reconstructed. Insurance didn't have to cover it back then, because it was 'cosmetic'."

"Some women choose to have tattoos done over the scar," he told her. "There's even a designer now that makes bathing suits for partial mastectomy patients. So they're not swimming with a bunch of padding."

The silence next to him was deafening, and the amusement in her voice when she finally spoke was audible. "Why do you know that?"

"I know how to use the internet, too, Pepper."

"I am just really amused you googled that. Or, well, had Jarvis google." 

Technically, he'd been googling post mastectomy porn, so Jarvis had had nothing to do with it. A man who couldn't search for his own porn didn't deserve it. But he wasn't entirely certain he'd want to know he'd done that sort of prep work. "I like to be prepared," was all he said.

He could see her working through a facial expression than meant she was trying not to cry. "Well. Mine look damn good compared to what's on the internet."

He pushed hair back from her face, stroking his hand down her back. "Yes, they do." He paused. "Did I upset you? It wasn't going to say anything to you. But I do tend to have that faulty brain to mouth filter and it seemed like a good idea. . ."

"No! Not at all. I. . .in a way I feel like I should apologize for a lack of faith." She sat up, and he watched her move to cover her breasts, and then stop. She smiled when she set her hands back down. "I don't know why I was nervous about letting you see them."

He stretched on his back, hands behind his head so he could admire her properly. "I'm vain, but I'm not particularly shallow when it comes to women. All shapes and sizes have been welcome. But I like you best."

"I like you best, too." He held one arm out so she settled back on his shoulder. 

Pressing a kiss into her hair he sighed and closed his eyes. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too," she whispered back. "Lets be apart less."

"Agreed. We're very smart and rich. We should be able to carve out more time together."

"Mmm. Agreed."

He tugged her closer and stroked her back as her breath evened out and she drifted off. Insomnia tugged at him a little, caused him to stare at the ceiling longer than he would have liked. But, eventually lulled by her soft, sleepy sounds, he drifted off as well.


	3. Chapter 3

_September, 2011_

Dealing with the other dangerous, cancer-making parts different. Her odds of ovarian cancer were 50/50. Bad enough odds to take them out, especially for a woman who’d long vowed never to have children. But there was something about turning 35 that had sent that infamous clock ticking.

If she fixed this, maybe she wouldn’t leave her children standing by a graveside. On the other hand fixing it meant if she was going to have them, she was going to need to do it _now_ , in the midst of being a brand new CEO, and perhaps the youngest in her industry. With an unstable partner whom she loved, but could admit was just barely learning to be a grownup.

"It doesn’t have to be now or never," Tony said one night while they were eating Chinese takeout. "We could just make up a batch of babies, and freeze them. They keep like ten years. Thaw ‘em out and stick ‘em in when we’re ready. We’ll do some paperwork so if we end up hating each other, you can still use them. It’s not like you’ll ever find better genes than mine."

What profoundly _him_ thing to say. "They’re called embryos at that point, you know."

"I did know that," he said. "I’ve spent the last three days having conference calls with leading experts in reproductive medicine. I wanted to know what I was talking about before I brought this up. I just like thinking of them as my own personal army, waiting in stasis to rise and take over the world."

Pepper laughed. His ability to be brilliant and ridiculous at the same time never ceased to amuse her. He could be a sitcom stereotype and the best of partners within the same paragraph. And she was the lunatic who was going to reproduce with him. "You know it's going to require you to jerk off into a cup, right?"

His eyebrows went up. "Do you want a list of all the things I’ve—"

"No! I absolutely do not." She took a breath. "But. . .okay. Let’s do it."

"Build the army?"

"We are not having an army’s worth of children, Tony."

"A man can dream."

*

The cup thing had been weird—doctor’s offices not being anywhere on his list of kinks—but not the end of the world. The questionnaire, however, was making him feel judged. 

Pepper was filling it out, and she'd been writing for several minutes now, in a lined area with very tiny printing. It was about him, but she was doing it because he hated filling out things. The last question had been if he'd ever had amoebic dysentery (no), and then the next one she'd started writing without asking the question.

"What on earth do they want to know that requires that much detail?"

She didn't look up. "Have you had any surgical procedures? Please describe in detail. I thought that might be a good place to rope in radiation and heavy metal exposure, which are also questions, plus the one about body piercings in a non-sterile environment."

He paused, going over all of that in his head. "Do you want me to get you a separate piece of paper?"

"I can fit it." She glanced up and inhaled slowly. She had that look about her she got when trying to decide how to ask him something he wasn't going to like. "You know, it is possible that that stuff had some sort of. . .effect."

He crossed his arms over his chest defiantly. "My swimmers are just fine. The lab said so." 

"I know," she said dryly. "You taped the report to the fridge."

It had been mostly a joke, but neither of them had thought to take it down yet. He had no idea what normal was, just that his was over it and hey, wasn't that something to celebrate? "What effect are you concerned about, then?"

"Them not fertilizing. Or having kids with three eyes, I suppose. But mostly the former. Genetic testing will catch the later before it happens." She looked back down at her questionnaire. "I just wanted to prepare you." 

"I appreciate your concern." He figured if it came to that she'd probably have to start shopping donors. Which would be. . .difficult. He could probably wrap his head around raising a kid that wasn't biologically his. Biology hadn't exactly made his dad warm and fuzzy, he didn't think lack of it would make him a jerk. It was more raising a kid that wasn't brilliant. He wondered how well they tested for that.

Well. Pepper's genes would still be pretty damn smart.

She was continuing to answer questions without asking. But then, she probably did know his medical history better than he did. Then she piped up with, "You okay with me lying on this thing?"

"Only if I know what you're lying about."

"Have you ever used recreational drugs. If so, please list each type and when." She raised an eyebrow. "Can I say none or do you want to get a piece of paper?"

Yeah, that would probably take up the rest of the form. "I'm comfortable with none." She turned back to the paperwork. "It's not like I really remember most of them, anyway."

She wrote more and flipped to the next page. "Have you spent more than six months combined in the UK between 1980 and 1996?" She frowned at the paper. "What the hell does that have to do with this?"

"Mad cow," he said, getting up to go rummage in the kitchen for a snack. "Though unless the kids going to eat our brains. . ."

"Oh, for fuck's sake. Yeah. Now we have the STD themed questions. Do you have hepatitis? Have you ever had sex with a man?"

He strolled back into the room with a drink and a fistful of cookies. "No and yes."

She reached over to steal a cookie. "Really?"

"Yeah. It was '93." He flopped back onto the couch beside her. "I did a lot of things in '93." It had been the tail end of his post-orphaning vice spiral. There were large chunks of the year he didn't really remember. But the threesomes, those he recalled. "It was nice but I generally like to be the most attractive guy in the room and that made it difficult finding partners."

That made her laugh out loud, and she put her hand over her mouth. "You are so. . . you."

"Well, I have a lot of practice," he said, shoving half a cookie into his mouth.

"You know in 1993 I was in middle school," she commented. It took him a minute to chew and swallow enough to answer. "This relationship is only going to work if you stop making me feel old."

She asked him a couple of more questions clearly about blood-transmitted diseases. Time in Africa and whatnot. It was a little silly to be answering these questions for a transaction involving the woman he was sleeping with already, but he could appreciate the need for thoroughness. The idea of STDs made his skin crawl—whatever he'd done, which had admittedly been a lot, he'd been exceedingly fastidious about condoms. Even in '93. Right up until her.

"I skipped the one about number of partners," she said, flipping back. "I don't know that I want to know. And you probably can’t do more than guess, anyway.”

Not true. He kept a precise count and could tell you all of their names, if really pressed—some ’93 blackouts excepted. But he was not opening up that topic. "On the bright side, I don't have any tattoos."

"I was aware of that, yes." She handed him the paperwork. She was the only person allowed to hand him things. Well, sometimes Jess. "Check this over, please."

He did as requested. Her little essay on the reactor was remarkably concise. He might start using that as his bio on the company website. When he'd finished he handed it back. "Looks good."

She took his last cookie, and he let her. Because that, right there, was love. "I wanted to make a joke under the 'have you gotten anyone pregnant' question, but there wasn't the space." It was theoretically possible one of the women over the years had gotten pregnant, had an abortion and never mentioned it. It might even be mathematically likely, condoms or no. But the handful of random woman who had tried to claim a paternity suit over the years had all been proven wrong. One turned out to not actually have a child. He made an attractive target for a certain brand of crazy.

"God bless DNA testing," he said fondly. "Though the one with the twins had an excellent case."

"Naming them Anthony and Howard was a nice touch."

"I admired the dedication, yeah."

She reached up to ruffle his hair. "Your real children someday will be adorable. I'm sure of it."

He leaned into her touch and she reward him by rubbing his head. "I should do some genealogy research. See if there's any redheads in my tree."

"Your father's mother was Scottish," she replied.

The rubbing was so soothing he was distracted for an instant. Then, "Why on _Earth_ do you know that?"

"You're always surprised when I know things about you. You think I wouldn't research the ethnic history of my future offspring?"

"And you are only now sharing?"

"It was in your father's biography."

He waved a hand. "Like I have time to read that."

"You should, I makes you look good." She leaned in to kiss him. "It's getting late, I should get to bed."

Much as he wanted to join her, he'd been neglecting his workshop horribly the last few days. Plus, he and Jarvis needed to brainstorm her Christmas gift. "I'll be up a little longer. Try not to wake you."

She kissed the top of his head as she stood. "Don't stay up all night."

"I'll have Jarvis nag me at a decent hour." She gave him another kiss, and then went off to bed.

*

_April, 2012_

By spring, after three rounds she ended up with enough embryos on ice, and she had time before she had to deal with the last round of surgery.

It was a gorgeous spring, and Pepper's biggest problem was that Tony was having shag carpeting installed in the living room of his/their/the apartment at the top of Stark Tower. Their living situation was. . .fuzzy. She still had her place in LA, and she did sometimes still sleep there. In New York they stayed in the penthouse of the hotel he owned, and expected to soon stay here at the Tower. Ugly carpet and all.

They'd calmly made a decision about children, but couldn't decide if they were co-habitating. It was very them.

She had to call him twice before he picked up his phone. With no preamble, she said, "This carpet looks like someone shaved a yak."

"How many yaks have you really seen? I mean really."

"It look like it's from a 70's porno. We're not having sex on it, not even with the special vibrator." He'd made her one for Christmas, programmed at exactly the right speed and frequency, which he'd clearly memorized. It was often very entertaining even when she wasn't alone.

She noticed that the silence on the other end of the phone was deafening, and cleared her throat. "Tony. Am I on speakerphone?"

"Hey, Pepper, how ya doin'?" Rhodey asked on the phone.

There were way worse people it could be. He was down in DC for his regular SHIELD consulting. The idea of talking about vibrators in front of poor Phil Coulson horrified her. "I'm great. There's shag carpet in my living room."

There was a pause. "I'm being told to tell you that shag carpet is greatly underrated."

"You're not supposed to tell her I'm telling you to say it." Exasperated Tony was always fun. "You're a terrible wingman."

"I'm happily married. You should think about getting married."

"How did we get from shag rugs to matrimony?"

"Seventies porn," Rhodey replied.

"I'm hanging up now," Pepper said. “I’ll see you when you get back tonight."

"Yes, dear," he replied and she could hear Rhodey laughing as she disconnected the call.

She checked her watch and headed downstairs, leaving the carpet installers to do their thing. She had a meeting in five minutes anyway. More city officials—now that they were very close to bringing the big arc reactor online, suddenly people were feeling squeamish. Her job lately was mostly pacifying people. Working for Tony had given her a lot of training in that.

But they were going to talk about the carpet when he got home.

Her meetings ran long, but she thought she had everyone all on the same page now. They seemed really, really concerned about taking the tower completely off the grid, and there was a vocal minority that still was sure the reactor was going to blow up Grand Central below. But it was progress.

She got into the private elevator that went all the way to the top, and was surprised to find it full of plaster dust. "Jarvis? Why is this elevator filthy?"

"We had a glitch today," the disembodied voice replied. "Construction workers were using this elevator instead of the service elevator for part of the day."

She sighed. "Has Mr. Stark noticed?"

"He discovered the glitch when he arrived this afternoon."

She hoped that didn't put him in a mood. He was weird about people in his elevator. "Is he up there?"

"Mr. Stark is on the terrace runway, testing the suit disassembly system. It's currently malfunctioning."

Pepper found him out there, literally stuck to the ramp, with one foot-piece left still on. "Told you you should have gone with a conveyor belt."

"Conveyor belts aren't cool, Pepper. Iron Man needs cool." He tugged his foot. "Can you help?"

"I feel like now would be an awesome time to talk about the carpet."

He gaped at her dramatically. "You're going to hold me hostage over carpet?!"

She grinned at him. "Let me go a get a wrench."

"Thank you," he called as she headed back into the apartment.

She brought the tool out, and together they got the last piece of the suit off. Once he was free of it, he bent to poke at the runway's mechanism, and it whirred back to life, sucking the final boot beneath. "I hope it hasn't just completely eaten your suit."

"Because I need an excuse to build a new one." He twirled the wrench, following her inside. "You hate the carpet that much?"

"Hate is probably a strong word." She could see the logic that had caused him to choose it, though. Tony didn't like carpet at all, preferring smooth surfaces. His house in Malibu was all stone and tile and wood. But then, Tony liked to wear shoes. Pepper kind of thought shoes were something to be tolerated and took them off as soon as socially acceptable. She'd campaigned to carpet the living room. He'd picked a small spot and put the thickest carpet in Manhattan there. Which was kind of missing the point, but very him.

"It's an attractive color," he pointed out. "Reminds me of the sand in front of the Malibu house." He gave her a nudge. "Step on it, Pepper."

Emulating sand certainly explained its texture. Though it still looked like an animal pelt to her. But she did comply, and walked onto it with her bare feet. It was exceedingly comfortable. It might be the softest, cushiest carpet she'd ever stood on. She didn't say a word, but she could feel him looking smug behind her.

"I can see your toes wiggling," he said in a little sing song.

She turned and glared at him, because he'd won and they both knew it. "That doesn't make it look any less like a yak hide stapled to the floor."

He stepped onto the carpet with her and wrapped her in his arms, dancing a little. "We can call it the yak circle, if that makes you feel better."

"We're not having sex on it. Just so we're clear."

His mouth turned down. "Is that negotiable or. . ."

She knew if she so much as gave him a hint, he would make it his mission. Though, it was actually quite a bit of fun when it was _that_ sort of mission. "Well. . ."

"That's my girl." He kissed her, dipping her slightly.

"Yeah, yeah." When they straightened, she said. "We are now good, legally, to turn the arc reactor downstairs on. Assuming it passes its testing, we should be able to get off city power by early May."

"Tests so far are going better than even I expected." He strolled to the bar and started fixing them drinks. "Dawn of a new age, Pepper. Are you excited?"

It amused her that he'd stocked the bar before the carpet was installed, or half the furniture was delivered. Priorities. "Yes. Nervous. This is much bigger than an old two story building and an air conditioning unit. It's been quite a project." She leaned on the bar. The idea for powering a skyscraper powered by an arc reactor had germinated during a island vacation where they’d been stranded without power by a natural disaster. Tony plugged the suit right into the electrical system while they waited for help. "That was two years ago, you know. Almost exactly. Doesn't seem possible."

He brought her drink over. "We live in exciting times. With all that implies." He took a large swallow before adding. "Once it's up, I think we're owed another vacation."

"Would be nice. I do have the last of the surgery end of the summer, but it is nowhere near the production of the last one. I won't even have to stay overnight in the hospital."

"That's a relief." And she could tell by his tone it was. He'd been very un-him about everything she'd gone through the last year. But she could tell it had worn on him. That he'd worried. Tony hated problems he couldn't throw money at to go away.

"I know it's been rough. But it's better than cancer." She moved closer to give him a kiss. "And right now, everything in our lives is good. It's a good moment." 

He tugged her close to his chest. "Well don't say it out loud. Are you trying to jinx us?"

"It never lasts, no matter what you do. I'm trying to embrace enjoying the moment."

He kissed her mouth, then just below her ear. "Is that the only thing you'd like to embrace?"

She couldn't help but giggle. But she leaned into him. He had to be the only man on earth who could consistently pull off lines like that. His hand was already working on the buttons of her blouse. "Not on the rug. . ." she murmured.

*

_May, 2012_

The city of New York was officially Bureaucratic Hell. Tony was certain of that. The arc reactor was perfect, everything was absolutely ready to go to launch his very public example of how, soon, we would not need to buy oil from corrupt middle eastern sheiks. . . and the damn city of New York was standing in his way. Suddenly, out of nowhere, it was going to take six weeks and a involvement from the damn coast guard to get him off the grid.

They'd tried to bury him in technological mumbo-jumbo that the idiot he was dealing with didn't even understand, but Tony did and knew to be bullshit. But, government was government.

So now the official switch-flipping was canceled, and Tony was sitting up in his apartment glaring at the skyline, contemplating. He could probably build something to circumvent their connection to the transmission lines without actually cutting them. If he did it right, the city wouldn't notice until it was done. Then it was just a matter of making donations until the politicians accepted his apology. 

The suit _was_ waterproof, after all.

"So I was thinking I might go for a swim," he told Pepper when she joined him in his skyline glaring.

"There's no water in the pool," she replied with a sigh. "You wanted that crazy Italian guy to do the mosaic at the bottom and he was booked until July."

"I was thinking more a salt water."

She looked over at him, and he could see her catch his line of thinking. When she'd been his assistant, what seemed like eons ago, it had occasionally driven him nuts when she'd figure out whatever he was doing before he was ready to share it. But as his partner, it was something he utterly adored. "That's probably illegal."

He waved a hand. "When have I ever cared about nuance?"

"Can I at least have the lawyers look into it?"

"But I wanted to do it now," he said, adding a little whine to his voice.

"Give me 24 hours. I bet you have equipment to build, you can't go down there with a hacksaw, you'll electrocute yourself."

He hated when she was right. "Twenty four hours," he said, pointing at her imperiously.

It was the middle of the following afternoon when she called him from wherever she was having meetings. "We have full permission for the hook up, and nothing in the contracts say we have to specifically have the city do it, so. . ."

"I can go diving without risking jail?"

"I'm sending out a building-wide notice that we will have a thirty-minute power outage tonight for the switchover."

"I will get to work finishing my equipment." He paused. "You're the best, Pepper."

"Don't you forget that. And you had better have some serious disinfectant protocols for the suit. That river is disgusting."

"I'll just retire it and use a new one," he said, only half joking.

"I'll being some Chinese takeout tonight so we can eat before you go."

"I would appreciate that, thank you. Not the thing with the weird lotus slices. I have limits." Pepper liked weird food sometimes.

"Yes, dear."

When he emerged from his lab, he found her in the dining room, arranging plates of dim sum on the table. She'd changed out of her work clothes, and he particularly approved of the first shorts appearance of the summer. "Building power is scheduled to go off at 9. R&D and the server rooms have been using the arc reactor as their emergency backup power for a couple of weeks now, but the roof generators are ready in case it fails after the switch. The guys told me if the HVAC is off for more than a half an hour there might be some concerns."

"I don't expect it to take more than that." Of course, what he expected was almost never what actually happened, but she was apparently too polite to mention that. He stole a kiss on his way past, cupping her ass deliberately as he did.

"And you're comfortable you won't electrocute yourself?"

"I am. The suit will protect me even if I do miscalculate something."

She grinned, and ate one of those steamed buns she was so obsessed with. "I feel like it's Christmas Morning."

It tickled him that she was as excited as he was. "Do we have any champagne? We should break it out when this is over."

She gave him her 'what kind of idiot do you take me for' face. "Please. I had a bottle of your Krug 1928 flown out from the cellar in California."

He kissed her again, reaching from some fried rice. "You're my favorite person."

"Ditto. Usually." She grinned at him around a potsticker.

Well, he deserved that. They ate while going over the plans and procedure one more time, killing time until nine. "I'm going to save my fortune cookie for afterwards," he told her when she held it out. "No jinxing."

"I can get on board with that." She stood up to collect the plates. "Go get your equipment, I'll get this stuff and meet you upstairs."

He left her to clean up and went down to the lap to get his things before heading up to the penthouse and onto the terrace to get the suit on. The kinks were finally worked out of the system and it dressed him seamlessly as he strolled. He could see her inside with the bottle of champagne and a bucket of ice. She put them on the coffee table, and then went over to his desk. A moment later her face appeared on his HUD. He watched as the rest of the building went dark. "Ball's in your court," she said.

Well, here went nothing. He engaged the boosters and launched himself, heading towards the river. "You ready for this, Jarvis?" he asked.

"Would it truly matter if I said no?" the AI replied dryly.

"Not really, no." He aimed for the water and went for it, full throttle. He broke the surface smoothly and headed for the bottom, ready to make history.

When the were off the grid, he flew back and Pepper waited to hit the switch until he was halfway up Park and could see it. It worked exactly, perfectly, the building lights blazing on, each and every floor. Even he had to admit his name on the top might be just a touch large. A touch, and he'd take that to his grave.

It was as proud as he'd been of anything, and for a moment he really wished his father could have seen it.

By the time he landed, he was absolutely ready for fortune cookies, wastefully expensive champagne, and sex on the rug Pepper still called a 'yak pelt'. It was their day of victory, surely she would indulge him.

Instead, he got Agent Coulson, and homework.


	4. Chapter 4

_The Battle of New York._

The car Pepper was riding in was painfully quiet. Phil was very silent beside her, tapping things into his phone. It wasn't that far to Laguardia, but it was far enough for it to become noticeable. "How worried should I be?" she asked after a moment.

He glanced up from his phone. "Do you want honesty or reassurance?"

She looked over at him. "Honesty, please."

"I don't know. It doesn't look good, this is an enemy the likes of which we've never dealt with before and we've already lost a brilliant scientist and one of my best agents. But we're pulling in all the big guns on this and I believe we can make it work. If everyone learns to play nice."

"You know playing nice isn't really Tony's strong suit."

"I believe Director Fury is hoping with proper incentive he'll take a level in maturity."

"I had some. . . very heavy stuff going on this year. He was surprisingly amazing about everything. It actually surprised me, and I know him better than anyone on earth."

Phil glanced at his phone again, then returned his attention to her. "The man fought his way out of a cave of terrorists, fought his mentor to the death and took on an army of drones after creating a new element so the thing keeping him alive wouldn't kill him. I think everyone gives Stark too little credit. Including Stark."

"I think he's aware he's good at being both a superhero and a genius. It's big and loud and epic and it feeds him. But I bet you couldn't find a bookie in Vegas to lay odds on him, say, being a good husband." 

His phone buzzed again and this time he had to type something. "Did you two get married and not invite me? I was going to get you a tea set."

"No, no. That was hypothetical. I'm not really sure that's our thing. Maybe someday. Perhaps I should have said 'partner'. Which is he actually pretty good at." 

"Maybe you'll have been good practice for teamwork. And if all else fails, I imagine he'll get to be both a superhero and a genius before this is over."

She was quiet a moment. "Keep an eye on him for me?"

He looked up again and offered her a gentle smile. "I promise."

The car had pulled up at the airport. She swallowed her worry, and thanked Phil for the ride. "Good luck," she added as she climbed out.

"Thanks," he said. "I'll keep you posted if I can."

Once she landed in DC, she called Tony to wish him good night. He sounded both concerned and excited about the contents of his homework. Mostly excited. He called her in the morning to tell her he was taking the suit and going to a SHIELD meeting in a classified location.

"I have to be back in California tomorrow," she told him. The connection was terrible, making her wonder where in hell he was. "Should I just go straight from DC and you'll come home when they're done with you?"

"Probably best," he agreed. "This could take a couple days and I don't know where I'll be next."

"Tower still humming along when you left?"

"Like clock work," he said. "Well, extremely advanced clockwork of the future."

"Be safe," she told him. "And have fun. In that order."

"Yes, dear."

"I love you," she told him, and he said it back before they hung up.

Her meetings in DC were fruitful. They had a couple of staff members from LA in town that the DC office wanted to take out to dinner. If she few home tonight, she'd just stew on the plane, so he treated everyone to a very nice steak dinner, and invited the team to fly back home on the jet with her. It would take her mind off whatever Tony was up to.

In the end, the trip cheered her up. None of those guys had ever been on a private jet before, and were taking pictures like tourists. She took one for them with everyone posed in front of the plane. 

After takeoff, she had a glass of wine, and even considered opening up a book. She should work, of course, but she had a knot in her stomach that made it hard to concentrate. A little analog time would do her good.

Somewhere over the Rockies, someone turned on the TV.

Every station had the same thing. An alien invasion in New York City, coming through a portal of some sort directly over Stark Tower. All the news was really sure about was that the army was on it's way, and that Iron Man was there. 

When she could move properly, Pepper got up and went to the cockpit. "I need you to turn the plane around."

The pilot swallowed. "They'll have closed New York airspace by now."

"Get us as close as you can."

He nodded. "I'll start calling around."

She thanked him and went back to the main cabin to sit in stunned silence as a group of superheroes—including the man she loved—fought monsters through the streets of New York City.

The FAA ordered a Ground Stop while they were over Ohio, forcing the pilot to land. It was then that she noticed Tony had tried to call her. When she called back, she got no answer. She patched in to Jarvis, who told her Tony had flown a nuclear missile into the portal, and then the suit had gone dead. 

"The GPS locator does indicate the suit is in Manhattan, so it seems he came out of the portal. But I have no connection." 

She blew out a breath. "Thank you. Please let me know if he comes back online."

There were things to do. She had people depending on her. She called Jess back home-- the pilot had already contacted her, and she was making hotel and transportations arrangements. She called Coulson but got no answer. She called Rhodey, hoping he'd been at the battle, but he was stuck in Hong Kong and had exactly as much information as she did. Less, actually. Pepper didn't think he needed to know about Tony driving a nuke into the portal.

Jess found her a car, because she was a miracle worker. It was clearly at the end of its useful rental life, and smell faintly of cigarettes, but it ran, so she pointed it east. It was all she could think to do.

She was still miles from New York state when her phone rang. She pulled off on the side of the road to answer it. "Hi, I'm alive," he said when she answered.

"Jesus," she gasped, and the next sound that came out of her was a sob. It took her a moment to get her voice under control. "Are you all right? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine. Well - a little beat up, but nothing major. So I'm fine. And I helped save the world. I've made lots of new friends and I think I've sort of adopted a gamma radiation specialist who turns into a giant green monster, but he sort of saved my life so I need to you be okay with that." There was a murmur in the background and she heard Tony say, "No, I think adopted is the right word."

He sounded fine. He sounded like himself. "They grounded us in Ohio. I'm driving towards New York. I don't know when I'll be there. Hours. Did they close the bridges?"

"I'm sure they did. And even if they didn't you're not gonna get very far. Downtown is kind of. . . broken right now. Hang on." She heard him murmuring again, with various voices responding. "Okay. Nat thinks - did I tell you Nat was here? She's terrifying. Anyway, she thinks we can have SHIELD come get you and bring you here 'cause we can't get out right now." Pause. "No, terrifying as a _compliment_."

She hadn't know you could laugh and cry at the same time, but apparently you could. "Should I wait here?"

"No, they'll find you. Keep driving In the meantime, we're all starving so we're going to go get some schwarma."

"What's schwarma?" Pepper asked, almost reflexively. 

"I don't know, but I really want to try some."

*

It wasn't the liveliest meal Tony had ever had, but it might have been the most delicious. Afterwards he offered a room in his hotel to anyone who needed a place to crash. The hotel was far enough uptown that the battle hadn't reached it. Lights would be on, water would be running. 

They had to walk up there, which seemed undignified for a bunch of superheroes—but his suit was in pieces back at the Tower. SHIELD called him, though they actually mostly wanted Romanov, which suited him just fine. He wasn’t feeling chatty.

Then he watched a black SUV nearly cause a pile-up before screeching to a halt in front of them. He wasn’t even surprised when one of the back doors opened and Pepper threw herself out and tackled him.

He caught her, staggering back a step. He held her as tight as he could, rocking her gently. "Hey."

All he got back was an incoherent mumble into his shirt, but he could feel her shoulders shaking. He rubbed Pepper's back. “How about we get in the car, huh?" It felt like there was a nod, so he guided her towards it.

She sat on his lap as they drove, the SUV crammed with the whole lot of them. Neither of them wanted to let go. He sent text messages with one hand to the hotel concierge so rooms would be ready.

They rode the elevator up, other Avengers departing on different floors. In an effort to maintain his facade of casual snark, he yelled after Barton that he was sending the doctor to check on him.

When they were alone, Pepper wiped her eyes and asked, "You're really okay?"

Well, there'd been a moment when he'd been certain he was going to die. Then a moment when he almost had. But now was not the time to get into that. "I'm fine," he assured her. "We all are, more or less. Good guys won."

She stroked his hair, and ran her hands over him like she needed to double check his claims. "If anything happened to you, I would never be okay again."

The words hit him like a punch to the gut. He wrapped her in his arms again and held on tight. "Not going anywhere." She pressed her face into his neck. When the elevator pinged, he really wanted to carry her out of it, but literally every part of his body was bruised or sore. His toes and his teeth hurt. But she seemed to understand, stepping back and taking his hands as they walked into their suite.

"I could use a hot bath and whatever anti inflammatories they have in the medicine cabinet. What do you think?"

"I will get you anything your heart desires," she told him. "That I can obtain in the middle of a federal disaster area." When the tower had been completed, they'd moved all their stuff out of the hotel penthouse as over there. Most of the square footage would be converted into suites, but planned to keep the one with the nicest view for himself. For guests, and nights when Pepper was mad at him.

None of the construction had started yet, and the furniture was all mostly still there. Pepper went in to run him a bath, and he found himself thinking about coming here the night after Vanko blew up the expo. When promised her he'd prove to her she could trust him. He was pretty sure he'd lived up to the promise. If he had died up in that portal, at least he could have called that a win. That and the Tower running on its own reactor. Some legacy other than war.  
He sank on the couch and put his head in his hands. When he closed his eyes he could still see the great expanse of space and an alien armada ready to invade. He was bone tired and dreaded sleeping, because he was sure that was going to be in his dreams.

_We won,_ he reminded himself. He was alive, Pepper was here and they'd won.

A hand touched his shoulder and he looked up to see Pepper smiling down at him. "Your bath is ready."

He mustered up a smile for her and stood. "Thank you. How long can I expect the waiting on me hand and foot to last? 'Cause I'd like to milk that as long as possible."

"You're adorable," she told him, giving him a very gentle kiss. She took him into the bathroom and inspected the cuts on his face. Then she handed him a glass of water put pills in his palm. There were a couple of Advil and an unlabeled round white pill. "I found some leftover Percocet."

Oh, that sounded like heaven. No dreams on Percocet. Usually. "You are an angel," he informed her, downing the pills and half the glass before handing it back to her to strip for the bath.

Pepper hissed, and he he turned enough to catch his very bruised back in the mirror. He looked down—they were pretty much everywhere. "You sure you wouldn't rather ice?"

It would probably be better for him. But that bath looked far too appealing. "Maybe later. Right now the muscles hurt worse than the skin. I don't want to be one big knot in the morning." He shucked his shoes and slacks and stepped into the tub, not bothering to stifle a groan as he sank in.

She sat on the edge of the tub and looked down. "I need to get some tweezers, I think you have glass in your scalp." And here he'd thought he was just imagining that his hair hurt.

"Yeah, I kinda got thrown through a window."

"Oh, honey," she said softly. Then she got some tweezers, and carefully picked out the little glass bits. "I should wash your hair, but it will probably sting."

"That will be the least of my problems," he assured her. "And the Percocet will kick in soon." So she pulled out the hand sprayer and washed his hair. Really, no one had told him this was the sort of treatment could get for saving the world. He was literally being waited on by a beautiful maiden.

He was pretty sure none of the others had maidens waiting on them. Maybe he should get them all some. They were his team, and therefore deserved the best.

That was probably the Percocet talking. Still, he had a team now. He should give some thought into keeping them that way. "Tomorrow, I'll introduce you to the other Avengers."

"I think I might enjoy that." She shifted so he could see her, dangling one hand in the water. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," he admitted. The worst of the aches and pains were easing and for the moment, at least, he felt safe. It was progress. "Hell of a day."

"Is there anything you need?"

Leaning back in the tub, he thought about any number of things, but none of them took precedent over a good night's sleep. He must be in a bad way because even a free blow job didn't appeal. "No," he finally said. "I'm going to finish my bath and crawl into bed. Hopefully with you next to me."

"I would not be anywhere else." She leaned over to kiss the top of his head. "I'm going to go see about getting some ice."

"Thanks. I'll meet you in the bedroom." He watched her walk out of the room and sighed, tipping his head back again. Hell of a day.

It took him a while to drag himself out of the tub, well after he heard the door open and close. Pepper was out there with his ice, and then there would be a comfortable bed. She'd even left a robe for him.

When he went out into the living room, there was a different woman sitting out there. A woman who was not Pepper, whom he'd never seen before. 

She looked up when he entered, peering at him through unflattering wire framed glasses. "Mr. Stark. I'm Dr. Newbury. SHIELD sent me over to check on you and the rest of the Avengers."

"Where's Pepper?" he asked, probably sounding more accusatory than he needed to be.

"She just ducked into the bedroom to change," Newbury replied. "Your face is going to need stitches," she said before he could think up a protest. Her face, he noted, had quite the scar.

"It's fine," he said automatically.

"No it isn't," she replied rummaging through the bag that had been sitting next to her. "Sit."

It was said in the same tone his mother used to use to get him to join her for tea and he found himself putting ass on the couch before he knew what was happening.

"My back is also bruised," he informed her. "Pepper was going to get ice."

"I can't," she called from the bedroom doorway before coming into the room. "Someone ordered a bathtub full of ice, cleaned out the kitchen."

"Ow!" he said to the scary woman pressing and prying at his cuts.

"I can give you some pain killer," the doctor offered.

"He had Percocet," Pepper said helpfully.

Dr. Newbury leaned back to look at him. "And you're whining about a superficial exam?"

"It stings. I mean, I'm high, and I don't give a shit that my back hurts. Still stings. Different kind of pain."

She seemed to consider that a moment, then rummaged around in her bag and drew out a syringe and vial. She filled the syringe, then leaned in. "This will also sting. Then it will numb you."

He was just. . . tired of things hurting. So he nodded. Pepper came and sat next to him, patting his knee. "So who took all the ice?" he asked her.

"I have no idea," Pepper replied. "It could be anyone if they all looked like you."

"They do," Dr. Newbury confirmed. The injection had been little more than a prick, which he appreciated. She leaned away to rummage again and he slumped against Pepper.

"After this, I sleep."

She rubbed his arm gently. "Lots of sleep." She even ruffled his hair. 

This had to be the drugs. Making him not care if some random stranger saw him laying on her like a little kid. "My face is numb," he told her. So, apparently was part of his mouth, based on how weird that sounded.

Pepper kissed the top of his head. "I know."

Newbury, for all her questionable bedside manner, was fast and efficient with the needle. Or he dozed off. Because in just a minute or two she leaned back and snipped her thread. "Would you like me to check for broken bones or bruised ribs?"

“'M'fine," he mumbled defensively.

From the speakers hidden in the ceiling, he heard Jarvis chime in, "I scanned him, Dr. Newbury. no broken bones and no internal bleeding." 

His eyes were closed, so he missed her reaction, but people always jumped and looked around. "Who—?"

"I'm Jarvis. I am an AI. I run all of Mr. Stark's homes. And his suits. The suit protects him extremely well, he just got thrown through a window without it. Hence all the lacerations."

There was a brief pause, then a rustling that seemed to be her putting stuff away. "Good enough for me. How many Percocet did he have left?"

"Two more pills," Pepper said.

Now he heard the rattle of pills. "Here's a few more to get him through the next forty eight hours. After that switch to this, as needed. If he has any numbness, blurred vision, high fever or the AI picks up on something call this number. I'm working triage on the street and can be here much fast than any other medical help."

He dozed while Pepper talked to her, and when he opened his eyes—because Pepper made him because she was evil and trying to get him to stand up—the doctor was gone. "Come on, time for bed."

That was probably a worthy reason to wake up, backwards as it sounded. "Okay." She guided him into the bedroom and he gingerly flopped onto the covers.


	5. Chapter 5

It was barely dawn when Pepper woke up. The pills had knocked him out, and then sheer emotional exhaustion had gotten to her.

She rolled over to see Tony was awake, too, staring out the window. "Hey," she said quietly.

He startled a little at the sound of her voice, but was smiling when he looked over at her. "Morning."

"Feel any better?"

"In some ways. I think I'm gonna be walking like an old man today."

She snuggled closer and wrapped her arms around him. "So yesterday wasn't just a bad dream."

His arms came around her, strong and sure as always. "Unfortunately, no. And now it's time to start thinking about clean up."

She kissed his skin. "The sun isn't even up yet."

"Well, not _now_ now. Just soon. Nowish."

That was very him. Always thinking about what's next. She stretched up to kiss his mouth. "Later."

He hummed a little. "Why Ms. Potts. Are you trying to seduce me?"

"Yes. I really wanted to get in that tub with you last night." She kissed him again. "Is it working?"

His hands splayed across her back, sliding down to cup her rear. "Something is working," he assured her.

It was enough encouragement for her to swing her leg over and straddle him. "I just—I need—" suddenly there was a lump in her throat again, and she couldn't explain it. "I almost lost you."

"Hey," he said softly, reaching up to touched her cheek. "I'm right here."

She held his hand against her face and nodded. Then she leaned down to kiss him, the sort of kiss that wasn't any kind of slow or gentle. She needed him. She needed to know they were both alive. He groaned into her mouth, cupping the back of her head to hold her to him. The other hand slid beneath the camisole she'd worn to bed and stroked her bare skin.

She straightened for a moment to yank it over her head. She thought about ripping her underwear. A crazy desperation had seized her, as if there was nothing else in the world but this, and her life depended on it. She returned to the kiss, hoping he could feel some of it.

His next groan was more of a growl. He shifted beneath her to strip his shirt off, breaking the kiss in the process. He caught the back of her head to draw her mouth back to his. Then she felt the fingers of his other hand delve beneath the edge of her underwear, stroking her wet folds. With a small sound of pleasure she lifted her head. "Rip it."

He gave her a grin she could only describe as 'male' and obeyed, tearing the scrap of cotton off her and tossing it aside. With a little fidgeting he shifted his boxers down far enough to let his erection spring free. She lifted up, and then sank down on him. There were times for lots of foreplay, but this wasn't one of them. She needed him inside her. She needed the connection. So she looked up to watch him as she rolled her hips, letting him slide in and out.

His eyes were dark with need and he never took them off her. His hands wandered, framing her waist, cupping her breasts as she moved. They were silent aside from their harsh breathing, and there was something very solemn and intense about the moment. It was just the two of them, the only people on earth right now.

The climax took her by surprise, bubbling up very fast and hot. She lost all sense of rhythm as it took her, but he didn't seems to mind. He gripped her hips tightly, fingers digging into her skin. He thrust up into her twice before stilling, body tense, and she felt the heat of his release inside her.

She tumbled forward, pressing her face into his his neck. She didn't care that the damn reactor was poking her. The tears from last night returned, though she couldn't say precisely what she was crying for. Perhaps simply relief.

He rubbed her back, holding her close as she cried herself out. When she was done he shifted her so he could wipe the tear tracks away with his thumb. "Better?"

"Yes," she said, and it was the truth.

He gave her a quick, light kiss. "Good."

Pepper stretched out next to him and he rolled over to face her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

He thought about it a moment, wrapping a lock of her hair around his finger. "Not yet," he said finally. "It's too big. I'm still processing."

"When it gets a little later, I should call Jess and tell her you're ok. Rhodey, too.I was a little beside myself when I missed your call. So I called everyone. I left Phil a long and very unprofessional voicemail I should. . ." She trailed off when Tony's face changed.

He swallowed and sat up a little. She watched him run his hands through his hair, stomach sinking. Then he said quietly, "Coulson's dead, honey."

She really didn't want to cry again, but she thought she might. "Ah."

Tony swallowed again and rubbed her shoulder. "I"m sorry, Pepper."

"I'm sorry, too," she said quietly. She traced the edges of his beard with her fingertips, and then kissed him gently. "A lot of people died yesterday, but not nearly as many as could have." He tugged her against his chest and just held her a moment, this time because he needed it as much as she did.

"Yesterday was the beginning. Whole world's going to know about us now. Avengers. Aliens. Dawn of a new age."

"I fear for your ego," she mumbled into his shoulder.

"Think of all the new things I can put my name on."

"I am a little bit scared of that." She leaned back to look at him. "I feel like it might be a busy day. I'm going to go hop in the shower and see if I have any clothes here."

"Go ahead. I'll see if I can get us fed.”

*

He called downstairs to see if he could have a breakfast buffet brought up to his penthouse. Owning the hotel, of course, he could. The penthouse’s kitchen had been mostly stripped, but the dining room table and chairs were still there. He then had a message sent around to all the others that they were welcome to come up and get free food, where there would be no press to mob them.

Banner showed up before the food, just as he heard Pepper getting out of the shower. Tony poked his head in the bathroom to warn her. "The others are coming here for food. Don't come out naked trying to seduce me or anything."

"You've foiled my plans. Unless you're up for an orgy?"

He blinked a her a moment. "You know a couple of them might be shy but I could _ask_. . ."

She threw her towel at him, which meant he got to see her naked, which was never bad. "Get out."

"Love you, too!" he called, heading back out to Banner. "Pepper'll be out in a minute."

"It's okay to admit you have a pretend girlfriend. Every nerd has done it."

"You saw her last night."

Banner shrugged. "Actress."

The sheer ridiculousness of this line of conversation made him laugh. "Stop that or I'll un-adopt you."

"Still not comfortable with that word."

There was a knock and a call of 'room service!' and Tony went to open it. "I can't marry you. It's illegal and Pepper has dibs." He opened the door and a fleet of servers began bringing in cart upon cart of food. 

Rogers was behind the line of carts. "I followed the smell of bacon."

"Smart man." Rogers and Banner exchanged nods as the servers set up the buffet.

Pepper materialized as Tony was closing the door on the last server and his very large tip. "There you are. Pepper, this is Captain Steve Rogers and Dr. Bruce Banner. Gentlemen, Pepper Potts.” He hadn’t done introductions last night. She’d pretty much had her face pressed in his neck.

She shook their hands. "Welcome, nice to meet you. The food is, clearly, that way, and—" There was another knock on the door. "I'll get that." She made a little 'go play with your friends' motion at Tony. 

He grinned at her and followed the other two into the kitchen, leaving her to her hostess duties. Banner was already piling a plate with food while Rogers watching in amazement. 

"The other guy takes a lot of energy," Banner muttered.

Tony was really glad he'd told them to bring enough food for fifteen people. Thor appeared in the doorway by the time Tony got to filling his own plate. "This is a fine banquet," he said. "And your lady is quite lovely."

"Thank you." He was never going to get used to his way of talking, but translating was easier. "Help yourself to the food. Where's your brother? Pinned under the hammer again?"

"Yes. We've also chained him to a steel beam down in the hotel's cellar, with at least twenty shield guards. I actually hoped to speak with you and Dr. Banner and Dr. Selvig. I have brought a device from Asgard that will allow me to use the Tesseract to bring us home. But I may need some assistance in getting it working."

"Not sure Selvig is coherent or not, but you can probably twist my arm. What about you Banner?" Mouth full he just waved a hand and gave a thumbs up. Tony looked back at Thor. "He says sure."

Thor looked amused at that, and then went to fill two plates. Tony took his breakfast and went out to the table. Pepper was standing in the doorway talking to Romanov. Barton was sitting at the other end of the table drinking coffee behind dark sunglasses.

Banner came to sit beside him, and ate in silence watching the others fill in and dig into their food. Selvig did show up after all—apparently he to had stayed at the hotel. Now he was in the doorway with Pepper. He made a mental note to make sure Pepper ate something. 

At the other end of the table, Barton was eating off of Romanov's plate. When he put his coffee down, she picked it up and took a swig. 

"You think they're doing it?" he asked Banner idly.

He seemed to consider it. "Yes."

Tony watch them another moment. "She's wound awful tight for someone getting some on a regular basis."

"I was sitting next to them at the schwarma joint. Very non-platonic level of personal space invasion. You don't touch somebody that much unless you've seen them naked."

That wasn't true, though. He and Pepper had gotten in each other's space frequently, long before there had been any naked times. A woman like Romanov, who used sex as a weapon. . . the person she trusted most would be the guy she wasn't sleeping with. He'd put money on it.

"Hundred bucks says they're as platonic as we are," he said decisively.

Banner turned. "You're on." He paused. "We're not having an affair if it turns out I'm wrong. Just so we're clear."

"These are terms I can live with," Tony agreed, sipping his coffee.

Pepper came and sat on his other side, trailing her hand across the back of his shoulders as she did so. "Thor wants to transport back to Asgard somewhere with plenty of space. I suggested Central Park, have SHIELD rope off an area."

He finished the coffee and set the mug down. "Good call. I'll ask C-" He stopped, mouth tightening. He saw Pepper's eyes soften and Banner's head go down. Fuck, he hated this. He turned his head to the other end of the table. "Hey, Red, who's our SHIELD contact now?"

Nat's head swiveled to look at him. "When I finish my bacon I'll get right on that for you, Mr. Stark," she said in her Natalie Rushman voice.

Barton reached over, picked up the two pieces still on her plate, folded them in half and shoved them in his mouth. He made a gesture with his hand indicating she had the floor. The look of death she gave him made Tony briefly reconsider his bet with Banner. Still, she got up and dug her phone out of her pocket, heading into the main room to make her call.

"Fearless," Banner said to Barton. "That's what you are." The other man grinned around his mouthful of bacon and saluted. Tony and Barton had both been pretty mad last night when it became obvious Thor intended to take Loki back home alive. Tony himself wasn’t generally a big fan of outright execution, but if anyone was owed a head on a stake out of this it was certain Barton. The arrow he'd put through Loki's neck last night had been pretty funny, though. Kept Loki quiet, too.

Nat came back a moment later and headed back to the buffet. "It'll take about an hour to organize but then we'll have access to the park. Also, they dropped everyone's luggage from the helicarrier downstairs, if anyone wants fresh clothes." She piled another plate with bacon, orange slices and other fruit and sat back down. Tony could hear her sigh audibly when Barton grabbed a strawberry.

They were all in a mix of uniforms and clothing that had been scrounged from his closet back at the tower. Rogers had on an 'I Love New York' T-shirt from the gift shop because his shoulders were too broad for any of Tony's shirts. Thor still had on his Roman Legionnaire costume, astonishingly pristine again, somehow. How did he even do that?

The room looked like the hungover remnants of a very weird costume party. They finished their meals and the others slowly trickled out to retrieve their bags and get ready to head to the park. Tony poured himself one more cup of coffee before heading to the bedroom to dig through the suits he'd left there. Proper suits, not red and gold metal ones.

"The light gray one," Pepper said from behind him. "Don't look like you're going to a funeral."

He'd just flicked past the one she'd mentioned and obediently went back to it. The funerals would probably come later. Lots of them. But she was right. It was a time of triumph. City saved, bad guy going off to . . . wherever for his punishment. Lots to be grateful for.

He tossed the suit on the bed and peeled off his t-shirt. "Once this is done I'll probably head back to the Tower. Start figuring out rebuilding."

"I'll head over there while you're giving Thor his send off." She handed him an oxford shirt. "Plus I need a change of clothes."

He shrugged into the shirt. "The penthouse is a bit of a mess," he warned her. "Also, I was serious about adopting Banner. He'll be staying in one of the guest rooms for a while."

"We do own the hotel."

"Nah, I want him close. For science reasons."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Build him an apartment in the tower, then."

There was a protest on his lips, then he stopped and studied her a moment, mind whirring. He stepped forward, cupped her face and kissed her. "You're a genius."

"I. . . thank you? I think?"

He grinned and kissed her again, gentler. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she said, sounding indulgently amused. "Put your pants on." 

Well, if nothing else, she'd always keep him grounded. He gave her ass a pat as he turned back to the bed to comply.

*

Once Tony had gone to see Thor and his captive off, Pepper found a pair of jeans and some old running sneakers in the "stuff we haven't moved yet" closet at the hotel. She got a t-shirt and baseball cap from the hotel gift shop, and hoped that was enough to keep her from being noticed. 

She had a conference call with the executive team back in California, and then one with the mayor, offering the city funding and equipment and anything else they might need during the cleanup. Stark Industries's General Counsel called her not long after that, concerned about the news reports already looking to point blame at the Avengers for the battle. Most of them would vanish to other worlds or behind SHIELD's walls, but Tony was going to be a very tempting target. 

No good deed went unpunished, she supposed.

Eventually, she made her way over to Stark Tower. Jarvis had the arc reactor back online, and most of the building had power again. The elevators were still down, but the building manager had set up a command center on the second floor. 

Apparently the lot of them had flown up and down when collecting Loki.

"Jarvis, what's the ETA on the elevators?"

"Conservative estimate is another thirty minutes, Ms. Potts," came the clipped, precise answer.

"Thank you. I don't think Tony's going to want to climb seventy flights of stairs."

"He would likely enjoy complaining about it, though."

Pepper chuckled. Only Tony would have a computer that snarked about its owner. Her phone rang again-- the reporters had started. She directed them-- again-- at the PR team, and put all her calls to go through Jess. Her worries last night had been entirely personal. Today it was starting to sink in just how catastrophic this had all really been. 

She had a great deal of work to do.

Tony arrived with Dr. Banner about an hour later. "All alien gods are off on their own planets," he announced, kissing her cheek. "How goes disaster central?"

"How many spare arc reactors do you have?"

He tipped his head back to think. "Two. . three." He looked back at her. "You're thinking for back up power?"

"There are still widespread outages all over midtown. Roosevelt hospital's only got a couple of hours of gas left for their generators."

"You wanna warn 'em I'm coming?"

"I'll call. Don't be conspicuous." She looked at her notes. "I'll see where the rest are needed. The Fire Department may benefit from something portable."

"Right. Keep me posted. Cell towers seemed to be handling the load all right. Bruce is going to start putting the labs to rights. Call him if you need heavy lifting."

That got him a sideways look from the other man, which Tony didn't notice. "Jarvis, elevators?"

"Four and Twelve are working. Service elevators are all still down as well."

Tony sighed at the ceiling. "What about my elevator?" The main elevators didn't go all the way up to the penthouse levels, which meant he'd have to climb the fire stairs he complained were dank and creepy.

"Thirty percent chance of the breaks giving out and you plummeting to your death. I recommend using elevators four or twelve, sir."

He was glaring at the ceiling as if Jarvis could see him. "Thirty percent isn't _that_ high-"

"Tony." As Pepper said it she realized Banner had said it in unison, in the exact same tone. Well, now she knew who had kept him in line during his heroics.

Tony gave both of them a grin. "Fine, but when everything else is done we're putting lights in these stairs." The last was said over his shoulder as he headed for said stairs.

"Welcome to the nuthouse," she said. "Bruce, is it?"

He gave her an oddly charming crooked smile and held out his hand. "Yes. Pepper, I presume?"

She nodded and shook his hand. "I know we met this morning. But I hear you'll be staying with us, so we ought to get acquainted."

"I'm sorry. I really don't want to impose. Tony just sort of. . . insisted."

"I honestly do not mind at all. We have enough space for an army. Besides, it sounds like you speak his genius language."

"For the most part, yeah. Uh, do you think _you_ can get him to stop saying he adopted me?"

"I have very little control over what comes out of Tony's mouth."

He shook his head. "Yeah. Didn't think so." He fidgeted. "I'm going to head down to the labs."

"Up. Take elevators four or twelve," she added with a grin.

He grinned in return. "Got it. Thanks."

Pepper took a break in the early afternoon, and finally went upstairs to survey the damage to the penthouse-- which was both better and worse than she expected. The two huge dents in the floor were the strangest. What in earth had caused that?

She kept in contact with Tony on and off throughout the day. He got the hospital hooked up, as well as a generator in Central Park where the Red Cross had set up shop. (He apparently also went to a bodega nearby and bought every bottled, non-alcoholic drink they had and one of their fridges and had it brought down for the workers.) He came back to the Tower after that, so they could debate who got the third reactor.

"What is with the holes in the floor?" she asked him.

He waved a hand. "Oh, that was Banner putting the hurt on the bad guy."

"Ah," she said. "That must have been one hell of a sight."

Tony's face lit up suddenly, and he went over to his desk. "Jarvis? Do I have a feed up here?"

"Amazingly, it is still functional."

"Excellent. Please show me the security footage from yesterday, whenever Banner made the Loki-crater." 

"One moment, sir."

Pepper wandered over to stand behind him. "Tony. Are there always cameras on in here?"

"Don't worry, honey, I delete the sexy stuff."

"We're never doing it on that rug again." The display in front of them came alive, sound and all—she was going to need to triple check his archives later—and Tony fast-forwarded until the part where Loki was yelling at the giant green monster about how he was a god, and everyone was beneath him. Then the Hulk grabbed him by the ankles and beat him into the ground like a rag doll.

Tony started giggling like a little girl. "Oh, I'm just going to rewind that and play it on a constant loop forever. Then I'm going to have those holes gilded."

"My favorite part was when he stopped, checked Loki, and the smashed him a few more times." He played it again, and she leaned forward. "I think he says something at the end."

Tony rewound it. "The Other Guy just roars and grunts, really."

"Jarvis, turn up the volume," Pepper said.

This time, you could hear a very rumbly, "Puny god."

Tony turned and looked at her. "I am buying that man so much stuff. And inventing him some incredibly stretchy pants.”

"You ought to send it to the rest of your team." 

"That's an excellent idea. Jarvis, clip these twenty seconds or so and email it to Nick Fury and all of the Avengers. Make sure you get the puny God part." He looked at Pepper. "Maybe a couple of koi ponds?"

"Are you going to feed them?"

"I'm sure they have automated feeder things. I watch that fish tank show."

"There's a show about fish tanks?" She asked. "And you _watch_ it?"

"I don't sleep a lot and it's on at odd hours on Animal Planet." He clicked the displays off. "And technically, there's two shows about fish tanks."

"So that's why you never want to sleep at my place. I don't have the fish channel."

"It's actually an animal in general channel? There's also a show that's just an hour of kitten and puppies frolicking."

"I don't believe you."

"Why would I make this up? It doesn't even sound like the kind of thing I make up."

She leaned over to kiss him. "I'm sorry. Aliens just came from the sky, I have no idea why I doubted the cute-baby-animals hour."

He cupped her waist, kissing her back. "When the TV is on again I'll show it to you."

She tucked herself against him. "In the meantime, we have work to do."

"Yes, we do." He pressed a kiss into her hair. "I was to convert a few floors into apartments. For my new teammates."

"So they can live here?"

"If they want. If they have no where else to go. We're a team."

Pepper leaned back and looked at him. "Who are you, and what have you done with Tony Stark?"

"I'm Iron Man." He kissed her cheek. "I saved the world, you know."

"I do. You're just usually a big fan of handling everything yourself. Rhodey calls it your Lone Gunslinger routine."

He was silent a moment, looking out at the trashed room. "Couldn't have done it alone," He finally said. "Not any of it. None of us could." He tossed her a grin. "Come on, you're always wanting me to learn things from my harrowing experiences."

"It has been quite a year, hasn't it?"

"It certainly had. I'd say we should take another vacation, but we've got too much to do. And it'd probably be interrupted by locusts or a plague."

"We could have a staycation. Prioritize filling the pool.""I love when you make up words."

"Staycation is a real word," she replied.

"Is it in the dictionary?"

Jarvis answered for her, unprompted. "It is in both the Merriam-Webster and Oxford English dictionaries."

Tony glanced up. "Taking sides, Jarvis? For shame."

She slide her hand into his. "Come on. Let's get some dinner, talk about your team apartments and find a recipient for the third arc reactor."

"That sounds like an excellent plan, Ms. Potts."


	6. Chapter 6

Slowly, Stark Tower was repaired—though he never replaced the rest of the letters, leaving the A out there alone. People started to call it Avengers Tower, and Tony found he liked that. 

He and Pepper spent a lot of time in the air again, though they attempted to travel together. There was a rash of lawsuits, which pissed him off to no end. He wanted to reply to them all with an inquiry if they preferred he had instead let the nuke hit. 

It had been made very clear to him—by many people, including the president—that under no circumstances could anyone ever know SHIELD had fired a nuke on New York. He'd saved millions of people with a suicide run and no one would ever know. But some of them would definitely try and sue him.

He was, of course, just the biggest target. People sued Bruce and Rogers too, because everyone knew their names. They furiously filed Freedom of Information requests in order to try and find out Barton and Romanov's real names.

Tony hired more lawyers. He funded a victim's relief fund for actual people killed or injured in the attack, and instructed said lawyers to fight anyone who wasn't into the ground.

In August, while the apartment build-outs were underway, he spent some time in California with Pepper so she could have her final surgery. It was much less of a process than the last one. It even seemed less dramatic than all the egg harvesting. At least there were no needles.

She didn't need to stay at his house this time, it was entirely outpatient. But he insisted she do anyway. He felt better when she was near. When he could keep her safe.

It was just about then, when she was tucked in his bed sleeping off her Vicodin, and he had nothing to do and no project to exhaust himself with, that nightmares started.

The first night he didn't think much of it. He'd been stressed and the subconscious mind was a fertile playground. The second night was annoying, but he handled it.

It took almost a week to start building the suits. All kinds of suits, with different functions and specialties. Suits for him, for Rhodey. Even for Pepper. Suits that didn't need anyone in it at all. It was the only thing he could think to do to keep the nightmares at bay. To fight an enemy he couldn't see.

One morning, he came up to find Pepper making breakfast. "You were up early," she commented. He actually hadn't been to bed yet, but he wasn't sure she needed to know that.

He made a show of stretching. "Well, you know. Had an idea, wanted to tinker. What are you making?"

"Pancakes." She pointed her spatula at the coffee, and he went and got a mug. "It's probably past time I got back to my own place."

The idea filled him with panic. He had gotten a master at hiding such emotions, lately. So his voice was almost normal when he replied, "What? No. Why? Are my digs not good enough for you?"

She flipped the pancakes on the griddle. "Your digs are lovely. But I don't actually live here."

"You could. . ." he offered. He was probably not in a healthy place to be making this kind of offer. But the idea of her leaving, of her not being in his bed every night where he could protect her, that was unthinkable.

She turned a little. "Are you asking me to move in here?"

"I- Yes. I am. That's what I'm doing."

One by one she moved pancakes to a plate. "Why now?"

"Why not? It's so hard to find time together when we're both working. Wouldn't it be nice to have a home base? Somewhere that's ours?" That almost sounded like he'd planned it.

"We do technically share the place in New York."

He gestured at the room around them. "And now we can have one on this coast."

She handed him a plate, and then picked up hers and the syrup and headed to the table. "I'll put my house on the market. But we're going to have a conversation about decorating."

In Tony's book this was a win. "Of course. And I promise, no shag this time."

She looked over at him, and reached out to stroke his arm with her fingers. "You all right?"

He swallowed hard, tempted, for a moment, to tell her everything. Every nightmare and fear. But he pushed it down and smiled. "Fine. Just restless. I need a new project or three. You know how I am."

For another moment he thought she might be able to tell anyway, but if she could, she left him his dignity. "I have a project for you," she said instead.

His brows went up. "Tell me."

She pulled down the waistband of her pants to reveal what looked like a nicotine patch, though she didn't smoke. "I have to wear this thing more or less permanently. It dispenses lady hormones, as my natural dispensers are now gone. Except that it peels up and sticks to my clothes and general drives me crazy."

He bent to peer at it. "Do you want me to invent new glue or a new dispensing system?"

"Whichever is most effective. I will need something like this another twenty years or so."

"Can I have a couple to mess with?"

"I will give you a whole box." She grinned at him. "Thank you."

He kissed her, leaning around the table to reach her. "For you? Anything."

The upheaval of Pepper moving in kept him busy for a while after that. He built a couple of lifting and construction related suits, and she was very amused that he wore one on the weekend of her eventual move. It got him thinking about the weeks after New York, wearing the suit to help dig out the rubble. Having a specified Disaster/Search & Rescue suit would be very handy. 

So he, of course, made three.

Pepper insisted on throwing a big Thanksgiving dinner at their new joint abode. It was all very domestic, but if it made her happy he was fine with it. He invited the Avengers—except for Thor, of course, whom he no way of contacting. To his delight, everyone accepted. Bruce was already out in California for a couple of weeks to help Tony with his Estrogen Delivery System problem. Thanksgiving gave them a new opportunity to possibly blow something up.

"Did you check the temperature?"

Bruce rolled his eyes. "Three times. We're good to go."

Tony cracked his neck before putting the faceplate down. "Safety protocols on place?"

"Check."

"Right. Count me down." 

Bruce started at five as Tony walked towards the barrel, carrying his payload. At one, he slowly lowered it into the hot oil.

"I still say frying a turkey is wrong," Rogers called from the doorway.

"That's because you've never tasted one," Barton replied. He was sitting on the deck railing with that magical balance of his, drinking a beer, seemingly unconcerned by the long drop down to the ocean behind him. That was the first thing he'd said since he got here. He'd been so silent that morning after the battle it had prompted Pepper to ask if he spoke at all.

"There was also a chance of it exploding, and I needed to test my heatproof suit." Pepper had been skeptical, because apparently lots of idiots on the internet set their houses on fire. Explaining that the roof of their house was concrete helped a little. Explaining he'd done much more dangerous things right there in the garage hadn't help his case. She'd almost made them do this on the other side of the yard on the helipad.

"Nothing happened," Bruce said, watching the fryer. "It's just frying."

Tony flipped his face plate up. "Well, that's just disappointing. Where's my earth shattering kaboom?"

"What were we going to eat if it exploded?" Rogers asked.

"Have you seen the number of side dishes there are in the kitchen? The turkey is mostly an afterthought."

That got him looks from all of the rest of them. Apparently, they were fans of turkey. He shook his head and clanked into the house to take the suit off. He could hear Pepper and Natasha in the kitchen, chatting. Before he could tell what they were saying they abruptly switched to French, glancing at him as he passed. He was pretty sure they did that just to mess with him.

Probably.

*

"More wine?" Pepper hovered the wine bottle over Natasha's glass, and poured when she nodded. 

"Thank you. I didn't hear an explosion, so I guess we'll get un charred turkey."

Pepper chuckled. "They were as excited as little kids about it." She sighed. "He's been weird lately, it's good to see him happy."

Natasha glanced in the general direction Tony had gone. "Well, after New York I think we're all feeling a little weird."

"That is certainly true." She refilled her own glass. "How are you guys holding up?"

The other woman shrugged. "I'm all right. Had some nightmares. Couple of bad days. Things like this help, seeing them all acting normally." She paused and sipped her wine. "Clint's. . . been quiet. We're keeping busy but. . ." She trailed off, a great deal left unsaid.

"You're still waiting for the boom?"

Nat looked back at her and her mouth quirked. "I suppose so."

"Tony can be self destructive under stress. So I worry. It's not as bad as I'd feared it would be."

"He seems like the type that needs to be busy. I actually don't know how Clint handles stress. He never seems to have any. Before Loki and New York, anyway."

"Everyone has stress. Some people are just much better at bottling it up."

"I suppose I just mean he's quieter about it. Hasn't destroyed any houses or given his art collection to the Boy Scouts or anything like that."

"People are themselves in all aspects, I suppose. If there's one thing Tony isn't, it's _quiet_."

Nat laughed. "When we were fighting we all had ear pieces in. The man did not stop yammering until he flew that nuke up."

"He was trying to call me," she said. "While he flew up. I didn't hear it."

"Has he talked to you about it?"

"Not much. I hear bits and pieces, like it slips out. He told me at the time that it was too big, and he needed to process it. He didn't talk all that much about what happened while I was in that cave, either. He likes to chat and quip far more than he likes to share."

The other woman tilted her head. "I can identify." She sipped her wine again. "It'll all come spilling out someday. When he's comfortable. When he feels safe."

"Anything I can do to help that?"

Nat shook her head. "It's an internal thing. Be there. Put up with the weird. Humor him unless it seems unhealthy."

That made Pepper smile. "With him it can be hard to tell."

The men were all standing around the fryer, watching it as though they still hoped it might explode. "A relationship with him is a bit of an adventure, isn't it?"

"Always has been. But I've found it worth it. For a long time all we've had is each other. I think that scares him."

Nat glanced out at the patio again. "I can relate."

Before she could reply, Tony came into the kitchen, now in his normal clothes. He slid an arm around her waist and kissed her temple. "Hi," she said with a smile.

"Hello, dear. How's the rest of dinner looking?"

"Good. We're not going to have any gravy because I just realized a fried turkey produces no drippings."

"Oh, damn." He frowned, like he was trying to science a way for them to have gravy drippings. "I guess extra creamy mashed potatoes?"

"I will had extra cream," she replied. "Sorry. I didn't even think."

The sliding door opened, and Steve came in. "Banner thinks the turkey's ready. Is everything else?"

"We're not having gravy," Tony said, hooking a thumb at Pepper. "Her fault."

"Hey!"

He grinned at her. "Sorry. We have no drippings, so we have no gravy."

Rogers looked surprised. "You don't need drippings for gravy."

"Are you about to lay some homespun depression era kitchen tricks on us?" Tony asked.

"Don't mock," Nat said. "The brown bread stuff he makes is delicious."

"It wasn't the depression, it was the war rationing," he said. "Do you want the gravy or not?"

"Yes," Pepper said. She gave Tony a shove. "Go check on your KFC special out there, Steve and I will make gravy."

"Yes, dears," he called over his shoulder, grabbing a beer as he went to join Bruce and Clint.

While Steve made the gravy, Pepper began warming all the sides and putting them in serving dishes. The turkey was brought in. Tony carved it with a laser—of course—and accidentally singed the tablecloth.

She didn't let him help lighting the candles.

Natasha took a picture of them all from the end of the table, muttering something about making and Avengers Facebook page, then they all sat down and ate. The turkey was delicious and moist as promised, the potatoes were creamy and the gravy delicious. Even the sweet potato soufflé thing that Natasha had brought was perfect.

"I have to concede," Steve said, "That the fried turkey may actually be better than roast turkey."

Tony lifted his glass in a salute. "And we have a convert. A Thanksgiving miracle."

"If Tony had manners, he would tell you he liked the gravy," Pepper said.

"The gravy is adequate for my food coating needs."

"It's delicious, Steve," Nat said from her end of the table.

"Thank you," he said. "You know, I haven't had a real Thanksgiving dinner since before the war."

"I haven't had one since I was a kid," Bruce added.

"I've never had one," Nat piped up.

There was a pause after that and Tony stood to pour more wine. "We are the team of misfit toys."

"Speak for yourselves," Clint said. "I am perfectly normal."

Nat reached over and patted his head. "Yes, you are. You're the token normal one."

Bruce raised his glass. "To misfit toys who sometimes save the world."

They all put in their glassed and toasted to that. After drinking Tony slapped his hands together and stood again. "Who wants pie?"

*

After dessert and more drinks, everyone took a dip in the pool, which was novel for the east coasters. It was a little chilly, but the pool was well heated. Then everyone made their way to bed. Tony wondered idly how many of them slept as poorly as he did, and if he would find them wandering about at three in the morning.

He went to bed with Pepper, even thought he knew he wouldn't sleep. He liked to curl up with her until she nodded off, even if he didn't.

"Successful party," she murmured after he turned out the light.

"We are consummate hosts," he agreed. "Everyone seemed happy."

She tucked herself against him. "It felt almost normal."

He rubbed her back. This was the time he felt the most calm, the most safe. Tucked in bed with her, the house protecting them and he protecting her. "Maybe it will be. Normal for us. We can start an annual tradition."

"The Annual Stark Misfit Toys Thanksgiving. I like it."

"Next year we can make a sign."

He could feel her shift to look up at him. "It was good to see you relax a little."

Well, he thought he'd been hiding it a little better. "I should have the boys over for cooking experiments more often."

"If you blow up the house, I'm not going to clean it up."

"I have robots for that."

He went downstairs after Pepper fell asleep, like usual. Only when he got down to his workshop, Bruce was already there. "Don’t you sleep?"

"I can’t believe _you_ asked me that," Bruce replied without looking up.

Tony went over to one of his benches. "I should make you your own workshop."

"Don’t worry about it. I’m not going to hang around much longer."

Tired as he was, Tony was suddenly much more awake. "I’m sorry, what?"

Bruce sighed in annoyance. "I can’t keep being around all these people. When I flew out here, the Other Guy almost got out because of idiots at the airport. If the turkey had exploded like those youtube videos and I got splashed with hot oil, I could have trashed your house."

"Our turkey was fresh, not frozen. The frozen ones explode. I tried explaining this to Pepper, too." Also, his house had been trashed plenty, he was used to it.

That got him an eye roll. "In any case, it’s about time I go. Nobody can stop him, the best I can do is get out of range."

Tony watched him a long moment. "Why don’t we build something that can stop him?"

"That’s impossible."

"Nothing is impossible. You know better than anyone how he ticks. We’ll do this together. Build a. . .giant suit, one that can at least keep him in line and, say, herd him into the ocean to cool off. Get him away from people. We’ll put it on a satellite in orbit. So even if you hulk out, I can keep you from hurting someone, anywhere in the world."

Bruce just stared at him for a long moment, his face shifting through a range of emotions. "I don’t get you. Why do you trust me?"

"You do get me, or I wouldn’t like you enough to be doing this." The list of people who actually got him he could count on one hand. It was good to hang on to them. He pointed a pencil at Bruce. "Hulk stopped smashing to catch me as I fell from the sky. His rage is about protection, not malice. And I’ve seen malice. He won’t hurt me any more than he’d hurt you. We’ll figure out the rest." The other man looked speechless and verklempt, which Tony wasn’t good at dealing with, so he kept talking. "Let’s build this thing. I want to name it after the kid who beat me up in first grade."

"What was his name?"

"Veronica."

The project kept him busy, but not busy enough to silence his bad dreams. He still wasn’t sleeping well, and was so tired and hopped up on stimulants, he’d misread a website and accidentally ordered Pepper a twelve foot tall stuffed rabbit for Christmas. A normal man would have just explained that, but he was him. Pathologically unable to admit his own wrongness.

She put up with it, because she loved him—for reasons occasionally beyond his comprehension. He couldn’t sleep, but she was here, and somehow he’d keep her safe. 

Then the Mandarin happened, and everything went to hell.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iron Man 3 occurs between Chapter 6 and 7. We assume you've seen it.
> 
> Trigger Warning: This chapter references a miscarriage. There is no detail.

_January, 2013_

The witch that fixed Pepper’s curse was a man named Aldrich Killian. He’d told her he wanted to make her perfect. Told her she was his trophy. She was strapped into some sort of uncomfortable contraption at the time, and in an inhuman amount of pain, so she didn’t pay him a lot of heed.

It was only later, after Tony had blown up all his suits and JARVIS had called for the police to come and get them, after they had been checked out and tucked into a hotel, that she realized her breasts, long ago replaced with fakes, had apparently grown back as part of the Extremis "perfecting", whatever that had meant. The two of them spent several days getting plenty of entertainment out of that.

It took a week for her to really think about it, and realize she’d have to go through the surgeries again. Assuming Tony really could fix the Extremis so it didn’t kill her. So far, he and Dr. Banner had just been blowing up plants in the Avenger’s Tower labs. 

Later, she’d be embarrassed it didn’t occur to her that if her breasts had repaired themselves, her ovaries likely had, too. At least, it didn’t occur to her soon enough. 

"I think we’ve figured it out," Tony proclaimed to her before he even got entire in the door. "I think it’s going to require a series of doses, and I think it might be really painful. But you definitely won’t explode. Now or ever."

He was watching her expectantly for a reaction. She sighed and set the little white stick, the one that had decided so many women’s fates with a display of one or two pink lines, on coffee table in front of him. "There’s a small problem."

*

They thought they could wait it out. It was a foolish notion, in retrospect, and one she was lucky didn’t kill her. They tell pregnant women not to take baths, lest their core temperatures get too hot and damage the baby. Pepper had a condition that caused her body to get so hot she could melt things.

"We still have the army in the freezer," Tony said while they waited for the doctor to come tell them what she’d been sure of when the bleeding started.

"I think that ‘there’s always next time’ is like the second most common thing people say at time like this," she replied.

"Sorry," he said. "Though it’s factually true. What’s the first thing?"

"Something about God needing another angel."

He snorted. "That’s bullshit. And even if it weren’t, what’s the use of an angel the size of a mosquito?"

"Hell if I know. George Bailey would have squished him and then completed his suicide."

The snort returned, and became a full fledged laugh. "God, I love you. You know I have this theory about that whole movie being a hypothermic hallucination?"

She put her head on his shoulder. "That suits my mood."

"Another thing. I didn’t get around to mentioning it, with all this. . . We ran analysis on your DNA while prepping the dose, you know, before. The original Extremis seems to have fixed your breast cancer gene."

The witch had lifted her curse, and taken her child. Pepper’s fairy tales were old-school.

It was, she'd note in retrospect, the worst winter of her life. They were living in New York, where is was cold and snowy and the days were shorter. Her hormones were a mess. She kept having to drag herself down to the labs every Friday so they could dose her with her Extremis antidote and she could spend the weekend trying to ignore the fact that her whole body hurt. 

She took it out on her staff—which she felt bad about—and on Tony. He once suggested she might benefit from talking to someone and she just about took his head off. She called him a fucking hypocrite and slept in the guest room. It was the last time they discussed her mood. (Again, in hindsight, he'd been right. But still also a hypocrite. If ever there was a human being who needed a shrink, it was Tony Stark.)

Spring brought warmer days and fresh air and managed to shake the gloom. She wasn't going to explode. She didn't feel miserable anymore. She even let Tony convince her to go on vacation.

"So I was thinking," he said one night, while they sat in lounge chairs facing the pacific ocean. His real Christmas present—the rabbit had been an online ordering fail—had turned out to be an oceanfront estate in Hawaii. The man didn't do anything small. "With everything that's happened to us this year. I may be changing my mind about something I was dead set against."

Pepper looked over at him. She had an idea where this was going. "It's too much paperwork."

He frowned. "What?"

"Getting married? I assume that's where you're going. The complicated 500 page prenup will suck it dry of all romance and the negotiations will probably cause us to break up."

He wrinkled his nose. "Oh. God no. I don't need our relationship notarized. I was thinking about getting the arc reactor taken out of my chest."

Now all she could do was stare. "Really?"

"Really. There's been some advances in cardiovascular surgery the last few years. I haven't made any official inquiries but. . . there's a couple surgeons out there that could do it."

Pepper sat up a little. "That sounds. . . dangerous."

"Well, most surgery is dangerous. Having the hunk of metal in there hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows."

"Suppose I do owe you some post surgical care, don't I?"

He reached over and rubbed her back. "I'm sure you can make Rhodey and Banner help."

She watched him a moment. "Is this about blowing up your suits?" If he'd built a new one since, she hadn't seen it.

"No. Not really. It's about. . . the future. Moving on. I have plenty of mental scars. I'd like one less physical one." He paused and glanced down. "Well, a different one, anyway."

"I am very familiar with having a time bomb in my body I'd like removed—and I did. You want to do it, let's do. I'll get Jess's mom knitting socks."

*

_June, 2013_

It took a few phone calls and a lot of meetings and tests. But he found a surgical team he trusted and went under the knife with Pepper and Rhodey standing guard. It sucked royally and if he never saw another drainage tube again it'd be too soon. But it was an improvement over the original surgery, he'd give it that.

Turned out shrapnel made a pretty cool looking necklace, once you polished it up.

He had no idea if Pepper would find it weird or not. A large ruby and plenty of diamonds hedged his bet. She was particularly fond of rubies. 

The logical thing to do would have been to explain it to her, but instead he just gave her the box without comment, watching her rip off the paper with a faintly confused expression, gasp at the ruby, and then furrow her brow when she took the whole thing in. "Is that. . .?"

"Proof Tony Stark has a heart," he told her.

She sucked in a breath, and then reached out to hug him. She did it gingerly, careful of the healing scar and titanium sternum that was probably going to hurt for the better part of a year. She pressed her face into his neck. "I haven't needed proof in a long time."

"Yeah, well. I'm still an ass, so it's good to have back up." He rubbed her back, rumpling her hair. "It's not too creepy? Rhodey said it was creepy but I figured rubies cover a lot of sins."

She leaned back. "It's not creepy. It's. . ." She opened the box again and lifted the necklace out. "Without these little bits of metal you'd still be my shallow, frequently drunk, womanizing boss. We'd be different, the whole world would be different. We might all be dead. They deserve a little reverence."

No one on this earth had ever _gotten_ him the way Pepper did. She handed it to him, lifted her hair and presented him her back.

He obediently fastened the necklace on, then turned her around to kiss her. "Thanks for sticking with me."

She rested her forehead on his. "Somehow, you manage to be worth the effort."

Somedays he still wasn't sure why. But he'd learned long ago not to argue with her on such things. "You want to go out? Show off your new glitter?"

"I'd be just as happy to stay in and wear it around the house," she replied.

His brows went up. "Just the necklace?"

"Assuming you're up to that," she replied, leaning in.

"My doctor has cleared me for moderate exercise," he said hopefully.

She laughed, and it was a beautiful sound. "I adore you, you know that?"

"I suspect it, though I am occasionally flummoxed as to why."

"I will make you a list."

With the Malibu house still destroyed—he hadn't decided what to do with the property—he and Pepper moved more or less full time to New York, working out of the labs and offices in the newly remodeled Stark Tower (or Avengers Tower, depending on who you asked).

They found a rhythm, a surprising patch of calm. Pepper had been scaring him for a while there, but was very much herself again. She did eventually even go talk to a therapist for a little while. She didn't nag him about doing so himself.

One night in late September they were laying in the dark in bed, mostly watching the skyline, talking, and drifting, trying to pretend they were young enough to muster a second round of sex before falling asleep (they almost never did). He had no idea what made the words come out of his mouth. "It would have been right about now, wouldn't it?"

Pepper didn't flinch, but she also didn't have to ask him what he was talking about. "Due date was October first."

He could feel her tense, and rubbed between her shoulder blades. "You ever think about trying again?"

She rolled over. "I knew it. The absence of the arc reactor is causing your mental faculties to deteriorate."

"I'm serious," he said. Now that he'd started he might as well pursue it. "There's still the army. I feel like we're in a good place right now."

"You're not wrong," she said. "But. . . all of the shots and medicine and procedures. . ." She shuddered. "I'm a little done with doctors right now." She studied him, and he couldn't see her face well enough in the dark to read it. "I don't know how good the odds are, but I wouldn't mind ditching the birth control and seeing what happens."

"I'm certainly not opposed to doing it the free and fast way." He gave her a squeeze. "But if you want to keep enjoying the peace I understand."

"Oh, no. No take-backs," she said with a laugh.

"I was trying not to go all caveman."

"I will call my doctor in the morning."

After that he decided not to ask any further questions. She'd tell him if she was pregnant, and otherwise it seemed less stressful to just not make a big deal out of it.

Then more aliens showed up—London this time—and all Tony could do was watch on TV while Thor fought them, because he had no suits. To his surprise, Pepper gently suggested he could build one like Rhodey's with the arc reactor built in. It was tempting. So, tempting. He needed to keep her safe.

He'd do it when there was a baby. His kid would be worth re-opening the Pandora's Box. So instead he tried to convince and/or bribe Thor and Jane to move into the tower (with their entourage). Having a Norse God on the premises would make him feel better about Pepper's safety. But with the convergence settled, Jane had a lot of fame and research she wanted to take advantage of. So they stayed in England, promising to call the minute something changed.

Early the following spring, he turned on the TV to see burning helicarriers crashing into the Potomac, and the news full of reports that SHIELD was even more awful than he'd originally thought. 

His phone started ringing off the hook. Mostly press trying to get a quote, though Barton and Romanov checked in to tell him they were still good guys and ask for favors. He put JARVIS to work on the SHIELD dump and spent a lot of time staring at the architectural plans for the Tower.

"I'm going to make a suit," he said when Pepper found him late that night.

"Because of SHIELD?"

He nodded. "We thought—well, I hoped—that the Chitauri would be the worst of it. But clearly the hits are gonna keep coming." The SHIELD files had revealed some awful things. He looked over at her. "I'm gonna get the band back together. Make sure we're ready for the next one."

"That sounds much healthier than you alone in the basement." She paused. "I think otherwise we should take a break on the baby thing. Until everything settles."

The thought depressed him. It had been something he was excited about. Positive about. But she had a good point, so he nodded again. "Just till we see how things shake out."

"I think the best thing to do is isolate the Avengers as a subdivision, but keep them under the Stark Industries umbrella. We'll need to hire someone—and administrator, not a superhero—to manage the division. As soon as we figure out who's not evil from SHIELD, we'll probably be able to scoop up some talent." Because Pepper had taken his statement and was running with it in a minute flat. This is why she was CEO.

"Hill," Tony said. "Maria Hill. Nat said she was still okay. I'm guessing she's underground at the moment, but as soon as she surfaces she'd be my pick for division VP."

"And we'll need the apartments prepped. I think it's just paint and finish and furnishings." She pulled a tablet from somewhere and tapped on it. "Natasha and Clint are coming? Is that one apartment or two? They have kind of a vibe to them."

He opened his mouth, then stopped and considered it. "I have no idea. Banner seems to think so, but he's not the best judge of human interaction. They're very close even if they're not doing the fandango."

"Ah. Well. How about two apartments next to each other. We can add a connecting door and pretend it's a coincidence."

"I ever tell you you're brilliant?"

"I am exceedingly brilliant. I don't need to be told." She kissed him. "I assume Steve is coming up as well? He's got to need somewhere to be when he's out of the hospital."

"Yeah. I'm guessing he's gonna want some familiar faces he can trust. Even if one of them is mine." He looked over at her. "I have to send the big jet to Australia to get Barton. His former employer stranded him there without bus fare home."

"You should see if Natasha wants to go for the flight."

"Why?"

"Because if they're lovers, she'll want to. Trust me. I wanted to meet your transport from Afghanistan in Turkey. Stane wouldn't let me. Said it would look like we were sleeping together." That guy, permanently fixed at the top of Tony's Asshole List for many reasons, had once paid Pepper specifically not to be seduced by him. 

"Jarvis, find me contact information for Romanov please." He turned back to his screens. "You know he was working with Hydra?"

"Obadiah? I am not even _remotely_ surprised," Pepper replied.

"Somedays I want to build a time machine and kill him again."

She reached out to rub his back. "You find anything about your father?"

"He was _not_ Hydra. So not complete shit." He paused, tapping something. "Pretty sure they killed him, though."

Her hand stilled, and he could hear her breathe for a moment before asking, "Why?"

"No idea. Working on projects they didn't like? Close to figuring out they were there? There's no official orders and no mission report I can find. But there's enough mentions of him to make me think that car crash wasn't an accident." He was silent a moment. "Never did make any sense."

She slid her arms around his waist and rested her head against the back of his shoulder. He could tell by where her cheek was that she'd kicked off her heels. Funny how much of her he had memorized. "I'm so sorry," she said quietly.

"It answers some questions," he said. He'd been too young and damaged and drunk when it happened. But when he'd allowed himself moments to look back he'd wondered what the hell happened. His dad had been sober as a judge, the weather had been cold but not icy and the road no particularly windy. The cops had figured he'd swerved to hit a deer, but Howard Stark had been a gear head and a lover of cars. He knew how to handle one. At least well enough to dodge an animal in good-to-moderate conditions.

"But asks a lot more?"

"None I need answered right now." He was tired of letting his demons rule his decisions.

"Excuse me, sir, I've found the contact number you asked for," Jarvis said.

"Thanks." He leaned back to kiss Pepper. "'Scuse my while I play matchmaker."

*

Pepper shook his head as he went to make his call. She walked over to the bar to get herself something to drink—it was that kind of night. She poured one for him, too.

When Tony came to get it, he pressed his phone against his shirt and said. "You're going to gloat. She said yes. Now I'm going to have to pay Banner money."

"And they'll probably have sex on your plane," she said, mostly to provoke the face she knew he'd make. But he was smiling again, which is what she wanted.

He paced away, but she did hear, "It'll get more attention if one of my planes comes to you, they are, you know, labeled."

Which required her to call at him, "Because you have to put your name on everything." He ignored her.

When he was done with the call, he made his way over to the couch where she'd settled and sat next to her. She put her head on his shoulder. "I have to go to London tomorrow. I can't reschedule."

"I know. I'm not on the edge of a breakdown." He pressed a kiss to her hair. "And I have a lot to occupy me."

"I'll be back Wednesday. I was supposed to go straight to LA, but I can swing through here. Spend the night and see the new suit. I'm sure you'll find some way to entertain me."

"I will spend every free moment thinking of ways to do so."

Pepper's flight home from London landed in the afternoon, later than expected thanks to a wicked storm system over New York, and she had to be in California in the morning. She just want to do a quick stop in her office before finding Tony and having some victory sex. Her meetings had gone very well.

"So I talked to Kelly and they can push that meeting until ten if you need to." Jess strode along beside her as they walked into the elevator.

"Are we blaming the weather?" Pepper asked her.

"Would you prefer I blamed your libido to a group of Chinese executives who already don't take you seriously because you have boobs?"

"No, I would not."

"Ms. Potts," Jarvis said from the speakers. "Dr. Banner is outside your office and would like to speak with you."

She sighed and tipped her head back. "What did he do?"

"Dr. Banner?"

"Tony."

"Surprisingly we've gone three full days without anything that might be classed as an industrial accident. Perhaps it's not about Mr. Stark."

"I will believe that when I see it."

Sure enough, he was loitering in her outer office, flipping through a magazine. She hadn't entirely known what to make of Bruce Banner when she'd met him. She'd heard plenty about the Hulk, none of it good. But Tony liked and trusted him, something that was _very_ rare. So she gave him a chance, and in return got an assistant in the part-time job that was wrangling Tony.

Since the Rhodeses and Happy had stayed in California when she and Tony moved to New York, it was nice to find an ally on this coast.

"Hi, Bruce. What can I do for you?"

He got up and followed her into her office. "Hire a doctor."

She turned and looked at him, surprised. "What kind of doctor?"

"A medical doctor. Or a psychologist, but I'd start with medical."

The psychologist was rather self explanatory if you knew Tony at all. The medical less so. "Why?"

He picked up her paperweight and fiddled. "Tony and Steve want to go after Hydra. That means multiple missions against armed enemies. Barton and Nat aren't enhanced. The suit protects Tony, but he still gets banged around since he insists on being in the middle of the fray. And while Steve has superior healing, his body has limits. He can bleed and I imagine if he lost enough blood, or sustained enough damage it would be life threatening. He spent time in a hospital after the carriers came down." He lifted a shoulder. "We're a military unit. We need a doctor."

"So we need a military doctor?"

Bruce paused, considering. "The ideal candidate would be someone with emergency training, some knowledge of enhanced or supersoldier needs, with a personality that can wrangle Tony in for blood pressure tests."

She sighed. "Jarvis told me about the blood pressure. Got anyone in mind?"

"JARVIS pulled up a few of the SHIELD doctors Hill thinks were loyal. One of them wrote a paper on the super soldier serum in medical school. Outlined the potential uses for the treatment of chronic illness. She also has a history of emergency medicine with MSF."

"She also set up and ran a makeshift field hospital outside the wreck of the Triskelion," Jarvis offered. Apparently he'd already developed a preference, which made Pepper smile.

"Have Hill have a chat with her. We'll make space in the tower for an infirmary and medical research labs." 

Bruce nodded. "Thank you."

The doctor—Newbury was her name—moved into the tower a week later. Apparently she was eager to get out of DC. Pepper let her settle and get her lab set up before going down and introducing herself. Hill liked to call people to her office no matter what the purpose of the meeting. Pepper summoned when the meeting was with the CEO of Stark Industries and she _wanted_ to put people on the defensive. If she was just herself, she went to their territory. It made people comfortable.

The infirmary was quiet, smelling of cleaning spray and new plastic. Parts of it were still being built. A young blonde woman came out of one of the side rooms, and stopped cold. "Hi. You're Pepper Potts."

She smiled. "Indeed I am. Is Dr. Newbury here?"

"Doc?" she said slowly. "The most powerful woman in the world is here."

"Does she have an appointment?" came the reply from the side room off to Pepper's left.

"Doc!"

"Okay, okay." A tall woman with dark hair pulled back in a ponytail appeared in the other doorway. She had thin framed glasses perched on her nose and a long, obvious scar down her cheek. With a small, professional looking smile, she held out her hand. "Amanda Newbury. Nice to meet you. This is Tiffani Myers, my head nurse."

It took Pepper a moment to place the face—the scar helped. She was the doctor that had stitched up Tony after the Battle of New York two years ago. It was unlikely Dr. Newbury had forgotten they'd met, but she was polite enough not to assume someone like Pepper would remember her. "I believe we've met," she said, shaking her hand. "And you can handle my surly other half just fine."

The other woman smiled widely. "After New York, yes. Mr. Stark is pretty much par for the course as far as my patients go."

"I am working on getting him down for a checkup. Dr. Banner is trying to convince him all the Avengers and staff need a medical exam before they can be cleared for official duty."

"That was SOP at SHIELD," Amanda offered. "And would be my suggestion. It's always useful to have a baseline. Dr. Banner has already come in for some blood work."

"Because he's a doctor and doesn't think he's immortal and medicine is for Other People."

"Some doctors are terrible patients. He doesn't seem to be one." She waved at Tiffani as the nurse headed out the door, then walked over to the desk in one corner. "If there's anything I can do to help your cause, I will. But if Mr. Stark won't listen to you, I doubt he'll listen to me."

"Sometimes he needs to hear the same thing from lots of people. Don't show him any fear. Or weakness."

"I feel neither of those things," she assured her with a deadpan look.

Pepper liked this woman. "Welcome to the Avengers, Dr. Newbury."


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next couple chapters cover the overlapping Phase 1 stories. ([My Scars, They are Your Scars](/works/1764943/), [Best Mistake I Never Made](/works/3258350/), and [Heart of Steel](/works/3702723/)).

_May, 2014_

Barton and Romanov moved in at the same time. According to Jarvis, they slept together in one of the apartments. Tony didn't mention this to Banner, because then he'd definitely have to pay him. They _claimed_ to be living apart, and Tony was going to help them maintain their facade. 

Rogers was out looking for his friend, but had expressed an intent to come stay in the tower. All they needed now was Thor, who conveniently called Tony the day after Barton and Romanov moved in.

Well, not _conveniently_. It was four in the morning. 

He was annoyed, Pepper was annoyed, but Hydra had raided Jane's apartment and Thor had nearly taken out the building in the fight. Suddenly the Asgardian was very interested in Tony's offer. So he sent Barton and Romanov to go pick them up.

Pepper herded him back to bed, only to be woken by Jarvis a couple of hours later. "Sir, you wanted to meet the jet carrying Mr. Odinsson and Dr. Foster?"

He growled a little, but shoved himself into a sitting position. "I'm up, I'm up. How far out are they?"

"Ten minutes. Mr. Barton radioed ahead they need medical care."

Tony sighed. He hoped Bruce was in a good mood today. "What's Dr. Banner up to right now?"

"He's working in the labs. But I should remind you that you hired a full time doctor to tend to the Avengers."

Oh, right. Bruce and Hill had tracked down some SHIELD woman who was costing him a fortune in lab equipment. "Well, send her up then." He poked Pepper. "Wanna meet a God and an astrophysicist?"

"I've met Thor," she said, sitting up. "We fed him bacon."

Right, post-New York. "A lot of that morning is a blur," he admitted, swinging his legs out of bed. "I've never met Foster, but her articles are fascinating."

Pepper grinned at him. "I like smart women."

To add to the morning's Battle of New York related memories, when he got to the hangar he was surprised to find the woman on his payroll trying to bankrupt him with expensive machines—because _Pepper_ had given her carte blanche—was in fact the surly doctor who'd mocked him and stabbed him with needles after the fight. "You!"

Her brows went up. "Mr. Stark. I see you healed up nicely."

"It's nice to have a doctor who has treated superheroes before," he said.

"I appreciate the opportunity," she replied. "Especially the research funding."

"You certainly do have a lot of funding," he replied.

"Tony," Pepper said.

Newbury shrugged. "Science is expensive. You of all people should know that."

"He doesn't look at his own bills," Pepper told her, prompting him to turn and make a face at her. Even if it was 100% true.

"I promise it's all entirely necessary," she said solemnly. So solemnly he was inclined not to believe her.

The plane came in then, saving him from having to reply.

Newbury took the newcomers off to be examined and patched up, and after a few appropriate wisecracks, Tony retreated to his labs.

He was working on what was currently a fool's project. He's started it more than a year ago, when Pepper had told him she was pregnant, because building things is what he did when he didn't know what to do with himself. When he needed to think. What he'd wanted most at the time was something that would keep his kid safe and happy.

He'd put it away for a while—he'd had to—then dug the schematics out again when they'd pulled the goalie. Yeah, they were taking a break on that, but he'd already started prototype fabrication. Pepper didn't need to know he was building it.

Bruce found him a few hours later, he tended to prefer swing shift hours lately. He peered at what Tony was working on a few minutes before commenting. "I hear we have new inmates."

"I've got almost everyone in my clutches," he said. He flipped the bottom of the cradle over and flicked on the repulsers. It shot upwards and hit the ceiling. "Jarvis! You just killed the baby."

"I am not the one who overcharged the repulsers," came the calm reply.

"Does your child really need the ability to hit lower atmo?" Bruce asked.

"What would you put in it? If it was your kid?"

He didn't answer right away and Tony looked over in time to see a look of grief cross the other man's face.

"Heartbeat and respiration monitors," Bruce said before Tony could ask him what was wrong. "Speakers for white noise or music. It should be able to rock or vibrate in a variety of ways."

"Well, it'll have the same biometrics as a suit," he said. "But sound and motion, got it."

"Pepper's not pregnant again, is she? I didn't sleep through an important conversation?"

"No," he said, harsher than intended. "I'm just tinkering. Maybe I can sell it."

Bruce shoved his hands in his pockets, watching a moment. "It would be popular, I'm sure."

This was a surprisingly uncomfortable conversation given the seemingly casual topic. He stood on his chair to retrieve cradle from the ceiling. "You made a face when I told you about Pepper. I figured you weren't a fan of kids."

Another silence. "I like kids."

Tony glanced over. "But?"

"I can't have any."

He blew out a breath. "Ah." He shoved the cradle under his work table. "I will stop rubbing this in your face, then."

"It's all right. I didn't mean to bring it up." He rubbed the back of his neck, wandering over to a different table. "It's just fresh right now."

"Had Newbury confirm your suspicions?"

"Yes." He slid his glasses on and perched at his work table. "I knew what it was going to say. But seeing it in print is still. . . a blow."

"I. . . am shitty with platitudes. There's probably something nice I should say, I'm me." He dug through his files for a different project. Now that he was making suits again he had plenty. "But what I do have is a lot of money. So if you want kids at some point, I'll get them for you. You can get anything with enough money."

Bruce tipped his head back. "I have this image of you buying me a baby from somewhere. I can't unsee it."

"I told Pepper I'd build a fake uterus and gestate them that way."

"Yes, that's much better."

"Excuse me, sir," Jarvis interrupted. "Mr. Barton is looking for you."

"Send him down, I guess." He looked at Bruce, who shrugged, and then wandered off to find somewhere else to be. He still had a tendency to avoid the new people.

Barton showed up five minutes later, wearing his vaguely menacing poker face. "I came to talk to you about arrows, and possibly bourbon."

Tony's first instinct was to say he was busy. But, he liked new projects, and wanted to get to know his new team. Barton was surprisingly decent conversation. He could clearly hold his liquor, well enough Tony might have felt a little competitive. Plus they got talking about the Battle of New York. So it wasn't entirely surprising that they somehow ended up _blindingly_ drunk.

"No, no, no. I can hit it." Barton was shooting arrows at the ceiling of his penthouse. "It's not even a small fly."

"You're turning my ceiling into Swiss cheese," he complained. Glancing around for materials, he added, "I'm going to build a trebuchet."

"That's brilliant." Barton swigged hundred year old scotch straight from the bottle like it was a beer. Tony didn't care. "This bottle is older than Steve. You think he's actually going to come up here?"

"Once he finishes his quest." Surely he had some odds and ends up here for trebuchet building. He got on the floor to rummage under the couch. "Man likes to be around people, whether he admits it or not. And he seemed grateful for the invite."

"I don't like people," Barton replied. He was texting on his phone. "You got any snacks?"

"I thought I had Doritos." He looked at Barton. "You ever notice Rogers is triangular like a Dorito?"

Barton's eyes widened like his mind had just been blown.

He texted some more, then announced Nat would be bringing snacks. Tony had cobbled together enough parts to make his trebuchet. Only now they couldn't find the fly. "This has been a most vexing bug."

"Natasha is a vexing bug," he said. "Is a spider a bug?"

"No. Arachnids. Technically I don't know if a fly is a bug. There's some sort of a classification thing." He'd had to do a project for that at school once, though search him as to what he'd learned.

Barton was quiet a few moments, making Tony wonder if he'd fallen asleep. Then he asked, "Why is your floor uneven?"

He grinned in delight. "Have you not seen the video?"

He turned and looked back. "Wait, that's from Banner smashing Loki? I guess it is." He got up unsteadily and staggered over.

"I felt it was a worthy trophy, keeping them there." Standing as well, he joined him at the divots. "There was talk of making them into koi ponds."

Barton laid down in one of the divots. "Yes. This is worthy."

Really, laying in the other one was only natural. "Maybe very small hot tubs."

"We should play that video," Barton said. "And get some tequila."

"I will make that happen." He tried to get up and the room spun, so he sank back down. "In a minute."

*

Traffic from Laguardia had been murder, so Pepper was tired by the time she got back to the tower. In the elevator on the way up, Jarvis spoke. "Good evening, Ms. Potts. I thought it might be good to warn you that Mr. Stark is extremely drunk."

She leaned back and looked at the ceiling. "Why?"

"He and Mr. Barton got into the bar whilst discussing their experiences during the Battle of New York. Ms. Romanov has already retrieved Mr. Barton."

She sighed heavily. "Thank you, Jarvis. Where is he?"

"In the penthouse. Eating Doritos."

There were worse places for him to be. At least she wouldn't have to go get help to get him into bed.

She found him sprawled on the couch, missing one shoe, eating Doritos from a bag that had been opened from the bottom. "Hello."

"Pepper!" he exclaimed like he hadn't seen her in a year. "You're back."

"I am. And you are very drunk."

"I am," he agreed. "But I made a friend. You like when I do that."

This was a little adorable. Even though she had a lot of bad memories about wrangling DrunkTony. "Bonding with your team over booze?"

"Barton and I were talking about the Battle. Alcohol was required."

She held her hands down to him, to help him up. He didn't look like he could do so on his own. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

He had to lean on her a lot and swayed once he got to his feet. "Bed is probably good."

She help him strip to his boxers, ignoring his blatant but clumsy attempts to cop a feel. "Nope," she said, giving his shoulders a push. "Drunk sex is bad sex."

"Not always," he protested, flopping back onto the bed.

"Not always for you. Probably always bad for the girl." She tucked the covers around him. She'd chat with him until he passed out. "How is the new suit coming?"

"Good." He yawned extravagantly. "Barton distracted me with arrows."

"You are going to need to build your team equipment," she told him, sitting on the end of the bed to take her shoes off.

"Well, you know how I hate new projects." He rolled on his side to watch her. "I bet I can make Cap's shield come back like a boomerang."

She leaned over and kissed the top of his head. "That probably violates the laws of physics, but if anyone can make that work anyway, it's you."

"I want that on my tombstone," he mumbled.

"Not for a very long time," she told him, but he was already asleep.

*

_July, 2014_

In the middle of that summer, Hill came down to his workshop one afternoon to tell him Peggy Carter died. He contemplated going to the funeral. She'd been a good friend of Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis, and one of the stable and sane parts in his shitty childhood. But paparazzi followed him everywhere he went, particularly now, and he didn't want her family to have to deal with that. He sent really nice flowers.

It didn't surprise him, though, that it brought Steve Rogers back to New York.

Back when she first moved in, Romanov asked him rather ominously if he'd talked to Steve yet, something about the way she said it making Tony nervous. But she wouldn't clarify, and when he did talk to Rogers, everything seemed normal. He forgot about it until the other man actually moved into his apartment, and the vibe was weird. Weird enough he complained to Pepper, and Pepper ordered him to go downstairs and sort it out. 

They argued for a few moments about whether Tony had to actually go to his apartment, or if he could summon the other man upstairs. She had all sorts of Machiavellian opinions on seating and positioning and whose turf meetings happened on. 

In the end, he trudged down to the other floor and knocked on Steve's door.

Steve looked unsurprised to see him. "Hi."

"Hey. So, do we have a problem? Is there some sort of fisticuffs we need to engage in to clear the air?"

"I know something I don't want to know. That I need to tell you but you probably don't want to know. But I also don't want to just wait for someone to find it in the SHIELD dump."

"Ah." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "I know Hydra took out my parents."

Steve blinked. "You do?"

"I've had JARVIS going through the dump since it went out. You think I didn't have him search for Dad? Gotta make sure the old man wasn't a secret Nazi."

"I could have told you that part without the files."

Tony shrugged. The man Steve had known and the one Tony had were two entirely different people. Didn't feel like having that particular fight, though. "Anyway, if that's what's bothering you you can drop it. I always thought the car accident was a little weird, now I know why. Closure, I guess, in a way."

Steve sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Well. I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Tony said sincerely. It had been a long time since anyone had said it, and when it had happened he hadn't been interested in hearing it.

He nodded, then looked up seriously. His voice was grim. "I want to wipe them off the face of the earth."

Vengeance, he understood. The seething urge to do _something_ to fix what had gone wrong. For a moment, at least, he and the Cap understood each other perfectly. "Well," he said. "Let's get started."

*

_October, 2014_

The search for Hydra was slow. They had to rebuild their intelligence connections, and set up field teams. They had to _find_ them. 

Building the team, building the suits and the oceans of other gear, kept Tony occupied into the fall. Then one night in the middle of the night—always the middle of the night—Jarvis woke him up for a phone call. Pepper was in California, so he hadn't been sleeping well anyway.

"It's Captain Rogers, sir. He apologizes for the hour and blames timezones. May I put him through?"

He scrubbed a hand over his face and sighed. "Sure, why not?" He waited a beat for the connection to go through and said, "Cap, I'm disinclined to hand out favors before dawn."

"That's. . .unfortunate. Sorry to wake you."

"It's all right. My nightmares were in reruns. What's up?"

"I found my friend," he said quietly.

Well, that was probably worth a four am phone call. "What do you need?"

"Can I bring him with me? Back there?"

Tony glanced over at the empty half of the bed. "How stable is he?"

"Stable enough I think he's safe. He knows who he is, who I am."

Good enough. "Yeah, bring him back. Your apartment has a guest room. When you think he's ready I can find him a place."

He could hear the sigh of relief. Where the hell else would he have gone toting a fugitive? "Tony. Thank you."

"Hey, more the merrier here on the island of Misfit Toys."

Jarvis notified him when the two of them arrived a week or so later—there was some smuggling involved. He figured he'd go introduce himself later, but now it was probably best to give them space. He did not expect Hill and Banner bursting into the penthouse to argue in front of him about Barnes. They eventually roped Barton into it, before decided Romanov needed to give Barnes a once over. 

Barnes almost broke their stern doctor's arm. Pepper muttered about hoping it didn't become a lawsuit.

"I'm pretty sure Scarface can take care of herself," he said, stirring risotto on the stove. "You worry too much."

"That nickname is also the sort of thing that's lawsuit bait." She reached over and stuck a spoon in his risotto to taste it.

"The rice will be too hard," he warned her, pouring more broth in. "And I wouldn't say it to her _face_. She's a little scary."

"The fact that you think that is exactly why we hired her."

"You know me well. Hand me the saffron."

She rifled in the spices and got him the jar. "You need to go get that physical."

He waved a dismissive hand. "It's on my schedule."

His schedule was flexible, though, so he could _re_ schedule. Which he did four times. Then Dr. Newbury—whose description he was seriously considering upgrading to Harridan—had accosted him in a hallway and threatened him. He gambled that she wouldn't go through with drugging his food, and she ended up doing something worse.

Pepper and Jess marched him down to the infirmary in person.

He thought that would be that. Without the poisonous hunks of metal in his chest he was the epitome of health. She'd clear him like she had everyone else and he could stop getting harassed.

And then she showed up in his lab one day, looking grim.

"JARVIS, there's an intruder in my private lab," he said, barely glancing at her.

"Dr. Newbury has level A clearance, as per Ms. Potts and Ms. Hill's instruction."

He was surrounded by traitorous women.

"We need to talk about the results of your physical," Newbury said.

"You couldn't have just sent me an email like a normal person?"

"No, because you would ignore it and it's important so I have come here to corner you in your cave so that you'll listen to me. Because let's be honest, you are not a normal person."

He was working on one of the sensors for what he'd started calling the BabyPod, and it was squinty. He adjusted his magnifying glass. "Yeah, I have to give you that."

"Your blood pressure is dangerously high and your cholesterol levels aren't far behind. You need to get on medication and alter your diet."

"There is nothing wrong with my diet. I have a chef. It's not like I'm chowing down on Big Macs."

She crossed her arms. "The idea that certain problems happen only to those who subsist on fast food and low income food is a dangerous fallacy. Also, your chef is not a doctor or a nutritionist."

"I'm not eating rabbit food. End of story."

"You can still eat most of what you eat now, just in different percentages." He ignored her. If he pretended she wasn't there, sooner or later she'd take the hint and get out.

Instead she reached over and took the tools he was using out of his hand. He swung around to look at her, the words "you're fired" on the tip of his tongue but she beat him to it. "You are going to take this seriously. You want to pretend you're indestructible in your suit, I could give a damn. But I know the human body like you know your machines and your body? Is failing." She slammed the tool onto his work bench. "Hypertension. You'll get headaches, pounding ones. I'm told you drink, so you're almost guaranteed kidney problems. If the idea of dialysis doesn't scare you how about this - you won't be able to achieve or maintain an erection. But that probably won't bother you for long before the inevitable stroke or heart attack hits. What do you think Ms. Potts would prefer to walk in on? A vegetable or a corpse?"

He opened his mouth for a witty reply—perhaps actually answering that question. Corpse, probably. Being on half alive on machines sounded like hell to him. Death was cleaner. Iron Man Now A Drooling Vegetable was not a good headline.

And the he thought of the night of the battle of New York, Pepper telling him if anything happened to him she'd never be okay again. He looked down at the sensor he was working on, for the child he hoped to have. 

Newbury backed off a step, as if sensing she'd won the battle. "I can deal entirely with your chef and Ms. Potts if you prefer. But you're an adult and you're smarter than most. I would think you'd want some insight into your care."

"I don't want to worry Pepper," he said. "You said there was medication?"

"Yes. Pills in the morning and night. Preferably with food. We can recheck you in a few weeks and tweak, depending on how they're working."

He looked up at her. "You know for a minute there I almost fired you."

She seemed completely unfazed by that. "I suppose you still can."

"Eh. A little insubordination in my life is a good thing." He held his hand out. "My screwdrivers, please."

She handed them back politely. "I'll print out a care plan and have JARVIS find me time to sit down with you and go over it."

He watched her for a moment, before saying, "Thanks, Doc."

That actually made her smile, and he was surprised at how much the expression softened her features. "Any time, Stark."

The pills weren't that bad, and neither was the food. It was mostly how Pepper ate, so it didn't bother him that much. It even seemed to make her happy. She was baffled as to how he'd been convinced to do this, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her that Newbury had actually scared him. Newbury herself was clearly not spreading that fact around.

He wasn't entirely sure he liked that woman. But he sure as hell respected her.

Eventually, Rogers wanted to take her on a mission they needed a doctor-type for. Tony approved it, and felt guilty when it went sideways to the point where she was hurt. Knowing her, she'd resent that.

"JARVIS, pull up the debrief recordings for the Romania mission." He liked going through them after missions, particularly shitty ones. It helped isolate the mistakes.

The ones from Steve and the agents were straight forward. Barnes's was a little more interesting, as he'd gotten separated from the rest and had teamed up with Newbury while getting back to the others. The rumor mill said there was something going on between them but Tony had yet to see definitive proof. A less likely pair he couldn't picture.

Then he got to Newbury's debrief, in which a third string spook tried to get her to admit Barnes had done something untoward, only to have the good doctor hand him his entire ass.

It was very entertaining, and pushed her firmly into the "like" column. It took him a few minutes of going back to work while it was in the back of his mind before he realized that that inappropriate and shitty spook was on _his_ payroll.

Before he could second guess himself, he marched down to Hill's office and without preamble, said, "I want the douche who debriefed Newbury gone."

"Already done," she said without turning a hair.

He folded his arms over his chest. "He didn't march in there with that attitude in a vacuum."

"I told him to make sure Barnes hadn't hindered the mission, not interrogate our doctor on her sex life."

"Has anything in previous missions given you cause to think he would?"

"Previous missions haven't gone that level of FUBAR."

"Would anybody else have gotten than line of questioning?" He raised his eyebrows. "Romanov? Barton?"

"Romanov and Barton weren't Hydra assets for seventy years."

"The man was a prisoner of war subjected to torture and mind control."

Hill tapped her pen on her desk. "Mind control we don't fully understand, that for all we know can be re-triggered at any time. You hired me because I had experience in running ops and keeping them safe. Ferreting out potential threats is part of that."

"You wanted to lock him in the sub-basement, I don't know that your judgement about Barnes is particularly unbiased."

"Just because everyone else is willing to glaze over all the unknowns about him, doesn't mean I am. Someone needs to watch the chicken coop."

"No, they really don't." Tony sat in on of her guest chairs. "He's a member of my team. He's an Avenger. Teams need trust. I don't want him looking over his shoulder for you."

Her eyebrows went up. "Is that an order?"

If something was up with Barnes she was going to give him the biggest "I told you so" in history, If they lived. But he meant what he said. Barnes was on the team. And even if Tony didn't know him well he was willing to go by Steve's gut and Romanov's and, hell, even Newbury's, that he was a good guy. "Yes. That's an order. Back off Barnes."

She stared him down a moment, then clenched her jaw. "Yes, sir."

He gave her a nod and walked out of her office. See, you didn't need to make someone come to you to own the conversation.


	9. Chapter 9

_June, 2015_

The Avengers, SHIELD-free edition, celebrated their first anniversary as a team blowing up a sinister but poorly defended Hydra installation in Thailand. It was apparently easy because they were back quick and in excellent moods. Tony barged into Pepper's office in the middle of the afternoon and convinced her to come upstairs and 'celebrate'. 

She cleared an hour, and then went back downstairs with hopefully not too mussed hair. They'd come a long way from when he'd come home from a mission and vanish into his garage.

He did have a "tinkering room" in their penthouse, for small projects. She found him in it when she got home that night, taking apart an office chair on his workbench.

Pepper frowned at it from the doorway. "Is that the chair from my study?" she asked casually.

"It is. I've requisitioned it." He glanced over at her. "I'll buy you a new one."

"What are you doing to it? And why couldn't you use your own?"

"I am converting it into a chair for our new IT guy."

Sometimes he really didn't make a whole lot of sense. "Cal Bennett? Facilities didn't get him a chair?" Tony didn't look up, so she added, "Is this an apology gift? Did you insult him? If he quits I'm going to blame you." She liked that guy. Someone who was that smart and yet capable of explaining things in a non-patronizing manner was a rare find. Plus he'd almost died helping Steve and Nat torch SHIELD.

"They gave him a standard chair. But he's got a a bunch of back problems from being crushed under a building so I wanted to make him something fully ergonomic to help."

"That's nice of you," she said. "Why?"

"I met him last week. You were out and he'd come to mess with your computer. He sassed me, I gave him a drink. We spoke as men do." He leaned back to study the chair. "I like people who sass me."

That made Pepper laugh, and she came in the room to kiss the top of his head. "You need people who don't take your shit."

"That's true. I have begun collecting them. Like the world's most masochistic crazy-cat-lady."

"Nonsense. It's healthy. I'm going to have dinner sent up, you want me to bring yours in here?"

"Yeah." He tilted his head and rummaged in his pile of tools. "I'll probably be working on this all night."

"Have fun," she told him.

"I always do," he called back.

When it was done, Pepper tested the souped up chair and pronounced it the most comfortable she'd ever used. She insisted he make her a custom chair, too. Sometimes he was handy like that.

A month later, the team was on an op in Columbia—Hydra found the loveliest places to burrow in—and they got attacked. Everyone made it home, though Barnes had been badly injured. Pepper didn't even know they were back until JARVIS informed her Tony was down in the infirmary's waiting room and wanted food. JARVIS called down to the cafeteria for sandwiches, and Pepper decided to take them herself. Like a nervous tic, once Tony went out to fight, she couldn't settle until he was not only back, but she'd personally confirmed he was all right.

The look on his face when he saw her was worth it. She handed out the sandwiches and took a seat next to him. He held her hand as he ate one handed.

The entire team was crammed into the room, and those who'd been on the mission looked an absolute mess; Clint and Nat were completely covered in blood. 

Bruce voiced the thought before she could. "I think those who were on the mission could really use a shower."

Before anyone could protest—because they would—Pepper added, "JARVIS will inform you immediately if anything changes. Heart surgery takes a long time, believe me." The wait during the unbelievably long surgery where Tony had the shrapnel and arc reactor removed had felt like an excruciating eternity. She felt him squeeze her hand. Waiting for her surgeries couldn't have been a picnic, either. "There's no reason you can’t take time to clean up."

Nat sighed and slowly got to her feet. "A change of clothes would probably make me feel better."

Clint stood up as well. "Agreed. We'll be back in a bit."

"You too," she said to Tony, giving him a little nudge.

"I don't have any blood on me."

"No, but you do smell like a man who spent many hours inside a tin can."

"Your candor is why I love you," he told her, kissing the top of her head as he stood. He passed Steve on the way to the door and clapped a hand on the other man's shoulder. "Hang in there. We'll be back in a bit."

Pepper watched the door a moment, then said, "I'm going to go make sure he doesn't accidentally pass out on the couch."

Banner gave her a little salute of solidarity. It really was nice to have other people share the Tony minding duties.

He was still loitering outside the elevator in their penthouse when she got up there, and smiled tiredly when he saw her. "Didn't think I'd make it?"

"You look a little like you're about to fall asleep standing up."

"I've done that, you know. In my youth."

"I know," she said. She reached out to take his arm. "But I am here to guide you to the shower because you seriously kind of smell like gym socks in an unventilated freshman dorm room."  
"That is a very specific comparison, Ms. Potts," he said, trailing along after her. "Is there something you'd like to tell me?"

"I went to college at a normal age and lived in a co-ed dorm," she told him. "It's not that exciting." When they got to the bathroom, she tapped the control panel for the shower. Their shower had a control panel. She could have asked JARVIS to do it, but voice-activated shower was a little much for her. 

Tony made a grumpy noise but started peeling his shirt up and off. "I should get some coffee. So I can go back down for the vigil."

"How long have you been awake?" she asked quietly.

"Pep, don't make me do math at a time like this." He had to sit on the edge of the tub to get his shoes off.

She opened the shower door to feel the water temp. Steam billowed; it had a dozen showerheads and he liked it scalding hot. "Proper sleep was on Doc's list."

"Man, she gave you a list? I told her not to worry you."

"I pried it out of JARVIS. Doc keeps your secrets." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Though I worry more in the dark."

He shrugged, kicking his pants off and getting up to step in the shower. "I was trying to keep pretending there was nothing to worry about."

"You're good at that," she told him. "It's dangerous."

It took him a moment to answer, probably because he was enjoying the shower. "Well, there's nothing to worry about. 'Cause I have it handled."

She leaned her back against the glass enclosure. "Sometimes it's nice to share. That's the point of having a partner, isn't it?"

"You have enough to worry about. I don't like to add to your burdens."

Pepper turned and yanked open the shower door. "No. Not this again."

He jumped, making a little surprised noise. "What?"

"How many times are we going to have the same conversation? You are turning my life into a mobius strip. Remember how you were dying of palladium poisoning and didn't want to burden me? Or when you didn't want to burden me with how you were slowly losing your mind after the Battle of New York?"

"I feel like the post-New York thing was pretty burdensome."

"It was," she said. "And I was pretty fucked up afterwards." 

"I don't know that you can blame the Extremis entirely on-" He noticed the look she was giving him and trailed off. "Right. Sorry. I'm fine. Doc says my numbers are all stable and as long as I do what I'm doing there's no reason to worry. I'm no worse off than the average guy my age with a high-stress job."

"A job where you sometimes come home covered in your friend's blood isn't quite normally high stress."

"Cops and soldiers do it." He'd clearly decided she wasn't closing the door again and resumed washing his hair.

"They also leave their fair share of widows. Plus they have really high divorce rates."

"But do they have bespoke suits of armor protecting them?"

She closed her eyes a moment. The dress she was wearing was wet from the escaping spray and steam, probably ruined, but she smoothed it anyway. "You don't want to worry me with your blood pressure, and yet are entirely oblivious to the fact that _every_ time you put on that armor I think this might be the day I never see you again."

He didn't answer immediately, scrubbing his hair with unnecessary vigor. "I like to break my problems down," he said finally. "It doesn't matter if the breaks are wiggly if the engine overheats in ten seconds. I suppose I don't want to bother you with the mundane because I can't take away the grandiose."

"Well, technically you _could_. You did for a little while there. It was a nice year."

He squinted at her a moment before rinsing his head. "You want me to quit again?"

"You can't. Both out of need and out of compulsion. I know you were working on a new suit before SHIELD fell. I saw the pieces."

His brow furrowed in what she realized was honest confusion. Then it cleared and he went back to showering, something oddly defensive in his posture. Pepper sighed. "It's okay. If it bothered me, I'd have complained at the time."

After another moment of silence he finally said, "It wasn't a suit."

"What else were you building that had repulsers on it?"

He sighed deeply and turned the water off. "A baby . . . pod."

She blinked at him. "In case we have to send our kid to another planet like Superman?"

"Would you believe that didn't occur to me?" He reached for a towel. "I guess it was just like an advanced cradle. Rocks, bobs, vibrates. Plays music. Monitor vitals. Like a little suit for the baby."

"Oh." It was a little puff of a sound. He'd been working on that a long time.

After drying himself perfunctorily, he wrapped the towel around his waist and headed for the bedroom. "I put it away again, once the others showed up and I started making other things."

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

He shrugged. "Nothing to be sorry for."

"I'm sorry because you didn't want to stop, did you? And I didn't even ask."

"It's your body and technically your embryos. I don't know that I get veto power." He glanced at her. "I like to plan, is all."

She took off her damp dress and found something comfortable to put on. "Doc does my birth control shots. I'm actually due for a new one. But she seems pretty busy."

He paused in the middle of putting sweat pants on. "Pepper, I don't want to guilt you into having a baby."

"I'm not saying we go get the turkey baster. I'm saying like before. See what happens. Statistically, probably nothing, and we'll have to get to the embryos anyway, but. . ." she shrugged. "Happened once, didn't it?"

After a pause to yank his shirt on - and probably carefully craft his answer - he said, "If you're up for that, then I'd like to try, yes."

She walked over to him, and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. "We're not getting any younger and all."

"I keep hearing that and yet I feel exactly the same." He turned his head and smiled at her, the real little Tony smile he saved just for her. "I think you might be getting younger. Is there a painting of you hidden away I should know about?"

"I think that's just a sign you're old and need reading glasses. The blurriness is hiding my wrinkles."

"Good thing Doc's not an optometrist. She'd had something new to bug me about."

"She's legally blind in one eye, she'd probably be more chill than you think."

That was clearly new information. She could almost see him filing it away for later. For now, he turned to hug her properly. "Ready to go back downstairs?"

They sat their vigil for hours, entertaining themselves and keeping Steve from getting lost in his head with conversation and a deck of cards. Maria Hill even showed up, much to everyone's surprise. She muttered something about not always being right. Her presence seemed to make Tony particularly happy, like the estranged uncle had decided to make nice for Thanksgiving.

In time, Doc showed up with good news. At least as best as could be said for the moment. Steve thanked them profusely for waiting with him.

In that sometimes gratingly arrogant tone that was usually an indication he was trying to mask serious feelings, Tony said, "We're a team, Cap. Dysfunctional as hell, maybe, but all the best families are." 

*

_December, 2015_

Pepper loved the Christmas dinner she and Tony threw. He had a big bash on New Years, but that was far more of a crowded party, and far more of a “work thing”. Christmas was just their closest friends, most of whom lacked extended family in the same way she and Tony did. It was fun and intimate and very merry. 

But she was also glad once the last guest had left. 

“I think we should turn the lights down, sit by the fire and tree, and watch a Christmas movie.”

She turned and gave Tony the side-eye. “I knew I should have cut you off from the eggnog.”

He rolled his eyes at her, brought down the movie screen, and a moment later started up _Die Hard_. The order of Pepper’s universe righted itself. “That’s not a ‘Christmas movie’.”

He gestured grandly at the screen. "Look at the snow, look at the decorations. The bad guys crash a Christmas party."

Pepper sat on the couch. "And you'd have had the bad guys taken care of before they even knew what was happening."

"If John McClane had had a suit he wouldn't have needed the machine gun." Tony slid an arm around her shoulders and tugged her closer. "Merry Christmas, Pepper."

"Merry Christmas, Tony," she replied. "Thought up any New Year's resolutions to try and drag past February?"

"I figured I'd just continue to be awesome and the rest of the world could change to suit my needs."

"Keep hope alive, honey."

He pressed a kiss to her temple. "What about you?"

"I don't know. I do know that I have now officially outlived my mother."

His only response was a little squeeze of her shoulders. "Did you get everything you wanted for Christmas?" he asked. "I still have-" He looked at his watch. "Forty two minutes to make it right."

She watched him. "We have not discussed since the summer, but it's been almost six months of 'seeing what happens'. That the answer is 'nothing' is not surprising given we're not exactly young. If we want a third stocking. . . might be time to take it seriously."

He stared blankly a moment, then broke out into his biggest shit eating grin. "You want to start defrosting the army?"

She laughed. Him and his army. If she wasn't careful he was going to build some sort of reproduction pod in his lab and gestate the whole lot of them. They'd be like that crazy fundy family with the nineteen kids. "I was talking about it with the girls. There's no perfect time. But now is. . . not bad. In the scheme of things."

"I agree. Have you talked to your doctors about it? Or is this your first conversation?"

"Figured I'd start with the most relevant party and work my way down.

"I am one hundred percent in favor of a new addition to the family," he said solemnly.

She leaned across to kiss him. "Good."

"So what happens next? Go buy a turkey baster and play some Barry White?"

"First I want to talk to Doc. And then there are going to be a lot of shots. Like a _lot_ of shots."

He winced a little. "Can I . . . help with that?"

"As I am not a member of cirque du soliel, you will have to. I won't be able to do them myself. Though, there are nurses here. I could go to the infirmary for them." 

"No, no. I want to be involved. I'm not scared of needles."

He wasn't scared of much. That would probably come in handy.

The offices were officially closed the week between Christmas and New Years, and that included the infirmary, though staff could be summoned in an emergency. Pepper sent Amanda an email asking her to lunch instead. _It's sort of a medical thing, and sort of a personal thing._

_I will wear my most casual doctor face._

The lunch was catered in Pepper and Tony's penthouse, because it wasn't a conversation that needed an audience. He was down in the labs, watching some sort of experiment he and Banner were running. It was time sensitive and the reason they weren't taking their usual holiday trip to the tropics this year. He'd promised they'd find time for it later.

"Thank you for coming," she said when Amanda arrived. The doctor had rather obvious hickey on her neck, she couldn't help but notice. She and Barnes were an item now. "Coffee maker was a hit?" A group of the girls had gone Christmas shopping.

She put a hand up to cover the mark, but looked more exasperated than embarrassed. "Among other things. I may need to run to CVS and get cover up if I want to look my lab assistants in the eye at New Years."

"We have a policy about visible bruising. I do run a company."

"Is the policy pro or con?" Amanda asked, sitting at the table the caterers had set up.

"I like to present a dignified appearance." She sat herself, and a moment later the server brought them salads. "I need advice."

She unfolded her napkin and covered her lap before picking up her fork. "I'm all ears."

"So. . . we have decided to have a baby. I have sixteen frozen embryos."

Amanda chewed for a moment. "Congratulations. With your build you'd probably be fine carrying twins but I'd still suggest one transfer at a time,"

"Oh, I have no intention of risking twins. It's not like we can't afford multiple tries. What I have been thinking about is. . . they are from before the Extremis. Which means that some percentage of them will still have the BRCA gene."

"Yes, they will. You're thinking of testing for it?"

"Is that. . . wrong?"

Amanda studied her. "Are you asking me from a medical standpoint or a moral one?"

She studied the lettuce on her plate. "I don't know. Both?"

The other woman put her fork down and folded her hands on the table in front of her. "How old were you when your mother died?"

Funny that could still put a lump in her throat. Pepper had to swallow it before she could talk. "Thirteen. I was nine when she got sick."

Amanda nodded. "I was eight. My little sister was diagnosed with a brain tumor this fall. She's thirty." She paused a moment and Pepper knew she was fighting her own lump. "I think there isn't a mother in the world who doesn't want to give their baby the best chance in the world at a good life. Your doctor will check the embryos for all manner of genetic and physical defects to make sure it has the best possible chance at implantation and viability. I don't see why checking to make sure she sees her fortieth birthday or he doesn't bury a daughter in his sixties is any different."

Pepper blew out a breath. "You know I got pregnant by accident after the Extremis thing. Which ended up causing me to miscarry, which was probably a blessing at the time. But they did figure out that it had fixed the gene then. And I had this crazy thought that that was the price to pay for breaking the family curse. So I suppose I should actually see that I don't just restart it."

"There is a possibility all of the embryos will be effected. Have you given any thought to what you'd do then?"

She blew out a breath. "Select for boys? I know they'll carry it, but it's less dangerous. Or we could try another harvest now, since my ovaries did grow back. They don't think they're in the best of shape, though. We went most of last year with no birth control. That one accident was probably a fluke."

"That tells me how strongly you feel about it." She picked her fork back up. "Test for BRCA. I can even run the tests here, if you're more comfortable. Pregnancy and motherhood is full of things you can't control. Don't begrudge yourself the few things you can."

Pepper smiled. "Thank you. Really. I knew you'd be the best person to ask."

Amanda looked flustered. "I- you're welcome. And thank you. I'm happy to help however I can with the pregnancy and birth."

"I'm hoping your presence in the building will discourage Tony from hiring someone to specifically fuss over me 24 hours a day."

"I assisted in births when I was with Doctors without Borders. I have to assume this will be easier."

"You may underestimate how much Tony worries. I'm the only thing he's incapable of being cool about. I image his progeny will only be worse."

She smiled. "Nothing makes a strong man weak like his loved ones."


	10. Chapter 10

_January, 2016_

"I really don't think I can do this."

Pepper looked over her shoulder to find Tony staring transfixed at the needle that would be delivering necessary hormones to her body. If he could manage to do it. "Honey. It's fine. Just do it quickly, right in the circle." Amanda had drawn a circle on her ass with a sharpie to give Tony something to aim at. At the time, Pepper had thought it funny.

"This is bigger than the other needles. You could fence with this needle."

She couldn't believe this was happening. He was _Iron Man_ , for God's sake. "Do it, or I will tell Natasha you're afraid of the progesterone needle."

That got to him, she could tell. The little muscle twitched in his jaw. Still, he protested one more time. "Isn't it going to hurt?"

"Not unless you dawdle so long the numbness from the icepack wears off." They had a full medical staff living in the damn building. She could have had a pro do this. But he insisted he wanted to participate. To be part of the effort.

He took a deep breath in through the nose, as if prepping himself for battle, then pulled his hand back and stabbed the needle right in the middle of the circle. It still hurt, and she focused on not flinching. "Pull the plunger up a little to make sure there's no blood."

"What do I do if there is?" He sounded alarmed. Amanda had explained all about it this morning, but his mind had probably wandered by then.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Just check." He was remarkably steady-handed as he did what she said. She was pretty sure if he'd wiggled the needle she'd have flinched.

"No blood. Deploy hormones?"

She nodded. "Go." Immediately, she felt it go in. The oil was kind of thick, but apparently the best liquid to suspend the progesterone in. It didn't hurt, really, but it sure felt weird. Then Tony set the needle on the counter next to her arm, and she pulled her pajama pants back up before turning around. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He sounded uncertain and looked vaguely green. "So three months of that?"

"Assuming the procedure is successful and the embryo implants, yes." She reached out to touch him. "I can have Amanda do it."

His jaw twitched again. "I want to be a part of this."

She reached up to stroke his cheek. "You are. Needles or no." 

He shrugged, but leaned his face into her touch. "I know. I just. . . I jerked off in a cup a few years ago and you told me they were on ice and it was all very theoretical. And now it's real and you're having to go through all this crap just to get ready for the chance that maybe it'll work and I just want to do my part. Somehow."

"The mother does generally carry the heavier load. That's just biology. If the old fashioned way had worked all that you'd have done was have an orgasm. One you'd probably have enjoyed a lot more than the one with the cup."

"Yeah, but at least I'd have that to look back on. This tangible event that tied me to it. I mean I'm all about the science and I'm glad we're doing this however it's getting done." He sighed. "I don't know. Maybe I'm still trying to wrap my head around it."

Pepper moved so she met his eyes. "Are you sure about this? If you need a little more time to process, it's okay." That was probably a little bit of a lie—but it was important that he be on board, before they reached the point of no return.

"I am sure about it," he said, very firmly. "I was sure when we first put them on ice. I was sure both times we pulled the net. I'm just having trouble with the ephemeralness of it. The books said it was common. Once you start having physical symptoms associated with pregnancy it'll be easier for me to conceptualize."

She could tell he was quoting whatever books he was reading. Which, in and of itself, warmed her heart. He was reading baby books. "It might be a while before symptoms that are really noticeable to you materialize."

"Doc said the nausea and moodiness could start immediately." Oh, sure, _that_ he paid attention to.

"I will let you know the very minute I first feel like punching you in the face."

He smiled and cupped her face to kiss her. "See? That's all I ask."

*  
_February, 2016_

If Tony was honest, he could recall a number of incidents during his party days when his bed partner had lurched up at dawn, and bolted to the bathroom to throw up their overindulgence from the night before. He had found those moments a particularly perfect time to sneak out—because that's the sort of guy he used to be. 

This was certainly the first time in his life he was actually happy about the fact that someone was vomiting within his earshot.

Doc had been testing Pepper's hormone levels every two days for a week now, the doubling numbers tentative proof that their first frozen soldier had, in fact, set up camp. But those were just numbers. This was an actual symptom.

He should probably contain his glee before she finished. With the vomiting he no longer needed the face punching.

She came back in the room just as he was pulling a shirt on. "Crackers?" he offered. "Ginger ale?"

All he got in response was a disgruntled noise, and then she climbed back into bed. "Run the company today, I'm taking a sick day."

Tony tugged the sheets up around her and kissed her head. "Are you serious? Because we're probably going to need to think of a good cover story for that."

"Tell people I have Ebola. That will keep them away."

He patted her back. "JARVIS and I till think of something. You want me to have Doc check on you?"

"I can call her later. I didn't think this would start so early. Maybe it's psychosomatic."

Torn between comforting her and wanting it to be the real thing, he patted her again. "Your assistant can run me through your schedule, I assume?"

"Jess knows it far better than me. And she knows about this, so you don't have to be vague."

Well, that would make things easier. He liked Jess, they had the same taste in women. "Right. I'm off. You rest and everything will be fine."

She pressed her face into her pillow and mumbled, "I love you."

"Love you back," he told her, heading out the door.

It wasn't as bad as it might have been. Jess was almost as good a Tony wrangler as Pepper had been. He had two meetings that he didn't screw up at all, signed the reports Jess told him to sign and lied through his teeth about where, exactly, Pepper was.

"You have shingles," he told her when he ducked back into the penthouse after lunch.

She was sitting on the couch, eating popcorn from a mixing bowl. "What am I supposed to say if I feel well enough to go in tomorrow?"

"The pain killers are working and you're not contagious. If anyone asks to see a rash, punch them."

Pepper chuckled. "So, how are you holding up?"

He flopped onto the couch and reached for a handful of popcorn. "I remember why I make you do this."

"You _make_ me, do you?" That sounded a little like the expected punch-in-the-face voice.

He froze with his hand in the bowl. "Why I gave you my company to run because you're so much better at it?"

"Better. That's better." She tilted the bowl a little towards him, indicating that he could have some.

Conversation paused while they both chewed. "Jess said just one more meeting this afternoon, then I'm done. I was going to go downstairs and tinker after unless you need me."

"Yes. And make sure you shower before you come back up, the lab has a smell to it that bothers me."

That was new, but he wasn't going to argue with the increasingly scarier pregnant lady. "Yes, ma'am."

She moved the bowl, and put her head on his shoulder. "I fear I'm going to be difficult to live with for a while."

"Well, you're been putting up with me this long. I think you deserve a few months of unlivable." He put his arm around her and rubbed her arm. "Did you talk to Doc?"

"She said some women do in fact start this early. There's medication I can try if it gets out of hand. And I'm to call her immediately if I can't keep water down. Also, she thinks next week there might be something to see on an ultrasound."

Talk about concrete signs. "I would like an invitation to that," he said with remarkable calm.

That made her smile. "I thought you might."

"When do we find out gender?"

She fiddled with her sleeve for a moment, the hesitation very unlike her. "Technically, we could find out at any time. They know the gender from the genetic analysis."

He leaned back a little to look at her. "You don't want to know?"

"I feel like if I give it a gender, it will be. . . a person. A baby. I'll get attached. I'm not ready to get attached yet."

A protest was halfway to his mouth before he caught himself. Her body. Her issues. Her pace. "Okay. But let me know when we can get attached. Because I'm gonna need to call it something. I named my robots for Christ's sake."

"You named one of them Dum-e."

"In affection."

She settled against him again. "I will talk to Amanda about when the worst of the danger has passed. And make sure the ultrasound is on your calendar." She paused. "Just to warn you, I think it's kind of going to look a tadpole at this point."

"That's all right. I have vision."

*

Tadpole had probably been too elaborate a creature for him to expect. It was a circle, inside a larger dark circle, inside a bunch of fuzzy stuff, displayed on the screen next to Pepper's head. But it seemed to indicate something to Dr. Newbury. She seemed happy with it. 

"Can't see a heartbeat yet, but that's expected," she was saying. "And definitely only one."

Tony studied the little blob a moment. "When does it look like a person?"

"Three more weeks, if you squint," Doc told him, typing something in her data pad. "How's the nausea, Pepper?"

"It's fine," Pepper said.

"All she ate yesterday was Tums and Skittles," Tony added, earning him a dirty look. 

Doc looked from him, back to Pepper. "Are you going to start lying to me now? Because usually that's him." She jerked her thumb at Tony.

"It's manageable," she insisted. "I don't have much of an appetite, but I'm drinking. Gatorade, even."

Newbury tucked her thumb and forefinger under the rim of her glasses and pinched her nose a moment. "Is this because you don't want the medication?"

"I'm not even supposed to have caffeine. Or, like, sliced turkey."

She smirked at that. "Point. Medication is different, but point." She hopped off the stool she'd been perched on. "You're lucky we're friends. Are you nauseous now?"

Tony watched Pepper wrestle with her answer. She hated showing weakness. Doc busied herself with turning off the screen and putting away the the ultrasound wand. Pepper made faces at him when he called it the dildo-cam, even though that was exactly what it looked like. "Yes," Pepper finally said.

"Okay," Doc said. "Wait here." She stepped out into the main room and came back a moment later with a little bottle and what looked like two watches. She took Pepper's hand, turned it palm up and squirted some goo from the bottle onto her wrist before fastening the watch onto it. "This sends an electric pulse into your nerve, which blocks the nausea message to your brain. They originally designed it for people with chemo."

"What's the second one for?" Tony asked.

She handed it to him. "It's for you to take apart and build a better version of because I know that's what you'll do."

Pepper was frowning at her wrist. "Hey, I think it works."

"We're supposed to give it fifteen minutes, but if you're feeling effects already, that's a good sign."

"It's not gone, but I feel less queasy."

Doc hit a button on the watch. "Give it a few more minutes. From what I understand it doesn't get rid of it totally, but will diminish it enough you can get food in you. I know I said hydrating is important, but we want you to be as comfortable as we can make you. You don't have to be nauseous and eating Tums. You don't get extra points for martyrdom."

She took a deep breath. "Should I worry? That I feel sick this early?"

The doctor shook her head. "Not at all. There's evidence that women with strong morning sickness actually have healthier babies and lower miscarriage rates. Your body is trying very hard to protect the little thing."

That made her smiled. Tony hadn't seen her smile much the last couple of weeks. Newbury held out a printout of the ultrasound pictures of the blob. "Keep the bracelet. Eat what you can. Let me know if you can't keep down water or revert to you candy and chalk diet. Come back in two weeks and we'll try to get you an eight week picture and a heartbeat."

"Thank you." Pepper climbed carefully off the exam table, and he reached out to catch her arm to help her. "You all unpacked yet?" she asked Newbury. She and Barnes had just moved into an apartment together up on the Avengers floor.

Doc smiled. "For the most part. James keeps getting distracted unpacking the books. I don't think I'm ever getting my Stephen King paperbacks shelved."

"Once you're settled and I feel less like death, we should do another girls night."

"I'm all for it. Perhaps by then you'll be up for an announcement."

She glanced over at Tony. "We'll see."

Newbury gave a look that said she wasn't touching that and walked them to the door.

"I don't know why I get a look," Tony said as they headed to the elevator. "I haven't told a soul."

"I can tell you want to."

"Of course I want to. But I have refrained, because I'm a good person and you asked nicely."

She looked at him for a moment. "It occurs to me that this is probably stressful, and I've banned you from discussing it with anyone, which probably isn't fair. Considering I had to tell Jess, and I built a loophole out of the fact that our doctor and I happen to be good friends."

He looked up from the little electrode bracelet he was studying and raised his brows at her. "Does that mean I get two freebies?"

"Yes. Choose wisely."

"Rhodey," he said immediately. Rhodey had kids, he would be an excellent source of wisdom. Tony bounced on his toes a moment, contemplating his second pick.

Steve would be happy for him but was even more useless with women stuff than Tony, plus explaining embryo freezing and giving Pepper shots in the ass was not something he wanted to do. For a brief moment he contemplated Nat, she wouldn't tell a soul and usually had sage words. But that seemed oddly like poaching one of Pepper's friends.

"Banner," he said finally. Bruce was a good listener when not tired and Tony saw him just about every day in the labs. Plus, he considered him a good friend. Though it was possible the news would be hard to hear, seeing how much he would like a family of his own. "Probably. I'll have to feel him out."

"He knew about the first one," Pepper commented. Tony had had to tell him why their extremis-fixing project had to come to a halt. A very brief one, as it turned out, but they didn't know that at the time.

"Yeah and he was supportive. But since then he's revealed he really wants children and can't have them biologically and telling him about this one makes me feel a bit like an ass." The elevator door opened and he stepped in with her, shrugging. "But he's a good friend and would be a convenient ear for venting, so I don't know."

"I didn't know that," she said. "Reproduction really is fraught, isn't it?"

"Landmines everywhere," he confirmed. Then, to clarify, added, "Theoretically he might be able to have them. They'd just be like him."

She blinked at him. "Isn't that usually how it goes? Or are you expecting this one to come out polite, humble, and of average intelligence?"

"Your genes might influence the polite thing. But no, I mean _like him_. With a superpowered, possibly green, alter ego."

"Holy shit. How?"

Tony shoved his hands in his pockets. "Apparently he did some tests with the Doc when she first got here. I don't know if it was his idea or part of her research. I don't understand what she does any more than she understands what I do. But she was able to confirm what he'd suspected. The accident changed his DNA. Hulk is in his genes now. He's exempt from any company blood drives and kids are off the table."

The elevator doors opened to their penthouse. Pepper made a beeline for the couch. "As you said once long ago, there are many ways to have a family."

"True. I suppose he'll be ready for one of them someday." He sat next to her and tugged her feet into his lap to rub her ankles. "I'll feel him out. Maybe he'll like the idea of being Uncle Bruce."

She closed her eyes. "Mmmm. Thank you. I think I might take a nap." She'd been doing that a lot lately.

"Rest up," he told her. "Building spleens is hard work. But when you wake up I'm making you eat food of some sort."

All he got in reply was a very faint snore. He smiled and slipped out from under her feet, finding a blanket on the back of the couch to tuck around her. He bent and kissed her forehead, then went off to call Rhodey.

*

_March, 2016_

Now they had reached tadpole, and the tadpole had a tiny, flickering heartbeat. Pepper couldn't stop staring at it. "Wow," she said finally. "It's, like. . . alive."

"Yes, it is," Amanda confirmed. "Very much so."

She glanced over at Tony, who was silently staring at the screen. She nudged him with her arm. "Okay, now I believe it."

He shook himself a little and grinned at her. "I would hope so." He pointed at the screen. "We made a tadpole."

"Apparently." She turned to look at the screen again. "It'll grow into a person eventually." 

"We all have to start somewhere," Amanda said lightly. "It's too early to hear the beat. Maybe at ten weeks. But the Starkling is measuring exactly where he-or-she should be."

Starkling. She liked that. "When can I. . .not stop worrying, because that's probably impossible. But worry less."

Amanda tilted her head, considering the question carefully. "Eight weeks with a heartbeat, good measurements and a known healthy embryo puts your odds of loss very low. However, most places will tell you to wait to the end of the first trimester. After that pregnancy loss is from major genetic problems or trauma. So I'd say you an breathe a little easier this week and start looking at the name books at twelve weeks."

"We'd need a gender for that," Tony commented.

Pepper rolled her eyes. "We'll get one, I promise."

"Anytime you like," Amanda said mildly.

Tony gestured emphatically. " _She_ knows?"

Pepper winced. "She consulted on the genetic testing."

"I have kept many medical secrets," Amanda said. "Also, every couple that refuses to learn the gender has some doctor or ultra sound tech somewhere who knows their baby's gender when they don't."

"I don't know that I'd go so far as to say we as a couple were refusing to learn," he said.

She looked over at him. "You really want to know that bad?"

"Yes. I like to plan things. I like to have all the information." He pointed to the monitor. "It has a heartbeat, it deserves to be something other than it."

She blew out a breath. It was probably just silly superstition that not knowing the gender would make a difference if she lost it. And she was not doing this alone, so it wasn't just her feelings she had to think about. "Okay," she said finally.

Tony's face lit up. "Really?"

Well, that face made it worth it. "Yes." She turned at looked at Amanda, and raised an eyebrow.

She had impassive doctor face on, bless her. "The embryo implanted was female."

Pepper turned and looked back at the screen, frozen on the last image of their tadpole. _Her._ She didn't know why, but suddenly she was crying.

Tony slid an arm around her and tucked her against his chest, resting his chin on her head. "We're having a daughter."

She sniffled into his shirt, and let him rub her back. A daughter without the curse. Her mom would have been so happy.

"I hope she looks just like you," Tony whispered.

She hugged him tighter. "I think dark coloring is dominant."

"You can't let me say one nice, cliched thing?"

She laughed, and leaned back so she could kiss him. "Is that the only one?"

He rubbed her back again. "There might be more later on. I'm new at this."

"So this is good? You're not disappointed it's not a boy?"

His brows went up. "Of course not. I'm happy whatever it is. I just wanted to know."

"Just checking. I really wanted a daughter, but I got what I wanted, so I have no cause to complain. Not that I wouldn't have been happy with a boy." 

"A girl will look even cuter in her coveralls helping me in the shop."

She remembered then that Amanda was still there, though making herself busy with paperwork across the room. "Anything else we need?"

"No, you're good," the other woman said quickly. "Follow up in a couple weeks. Let me know if there's problems." She glanced back at her. "Congratulations, Pepper."

She wiped her eyes and sniffled indelicately. "Thank you."

"Think about that girl's day," Amanda added as Tony helped Pepper off the table. "Once you're breathing easier."

"I will." When they were out in the hallway, Pepper commented, "You should go out with the boys."

"While you're with your hens?"

"Yes. Go bond as men do. While we still have the freedom to come and go as we please."

He paused a minute. "Can I take them to a strip club?"

"Is it wrong I find the idea of Steve at a strip club _really_ entertaining?"

"Why do you think I suggested it?" he asked.

She also felt bad that between the meds and procedures and now the nausea she really hadn't wanted to be touched in. . . quite a while. "Go. You can even have a lap dance. No touching."

He was now staring at her as if he wasn't entirely sure she wasn't a pod person. "I will abide but the rules of New York law."

"You'd be surprised to learn I have no idea what that means."

"New York is pretty specific about touching."

"Good. So am I." She kissed his cheek. "But have fun. If you smoke cigars please change and shower in the gym or someone else's apartment before coming home."

"You have my word as a Stark."


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here we're into the Phase 2 Stories ([History's Like Gravity](/works/3878896/), [Welcome to the New Age](/works/3871867/), and [Lifelong Love Letter](/works/4012279/)

_April, 2016_

Pepper's morning sickness, and the inability to travel that came with it, was doing a great deal to remind Tony just how much he hated running his company. He'd had a meeting in Japan, and was now on day two of meetings in California, and was seriously considering actually hiring someone to handle it all. 

He was in between meetings when his phone lit up with Jess’s number. She'd been calling him often since Pepper had been under the weather the last few days. He really ought to ask Newbury how much longer this would go on. "Yeah?"

"Hey. Sorry to bug you again. Any chance you could come back early?"

"It'll be hard without pissing someone off. Why? Is something wrong?"

"I'm concerned about Pepper. She insists she's fine, but I don't think she is. Every time I go down there, she's locked in the bathroom, and she hasn't touched anything I bring and leave in the kitchen."

He stifled a sigh and rubbed a hand over his face. "Okay. Uh, see if Doc can talk to her. I'll shuffle some stuff here and try to get back tonight."

"Doc's on her way home from a conference in London. The woman covering the infirmary seems somewhat intimidated by Pepper and not interested in fighting with her."

"Right. Well, I'll call her and see what I can do."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark," she said.

"It's what I do." They said their goodbyes and he immediately dialed Pepper's number, hoping she was answering.

It took a few rings, but she answered with, "What?"

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"You called me. What do you want?"

Summoning what little patience he had, he tried again. "I want to know what's going on with you that has Jess so worried she called me. She said you're not eating again and haven't left the bathroom. Is the nausea getting worse again?"

"I have my band on," she replied. "I told Jess I was fine, I just want to be left alone."

He would not get frustrated. She was in pain and misery and needed his support. He was not Howard, he could do this. "Is the band still handling the nausea? Are you able to eat?"

She sighed. "I had some skittles."

Tony smiled, feeling an oddly timed wave of affection for his stubborn red head. "Okay," he said gently. "I'm going to switch my next meeting to a conference call and hop on a plane. Will you please let one of Doc's nurses check you out and give you an IV if she thinks you need it?"

There was a moment of silence before Pepper said, "If it will make you feel better."

It would probably make her feel a lot better, but that was not the game they were playing right now. "It would," he said sincerely. "It will keep me from worrying on the flight."

Pepper sighed. "All right. I will call Doc's nurse."

"Thank you. I will see you tonight. I love you." It seemed like a good idea to remind her of that.

"I love you, too," she replied, and even sounded mostly like she meant it.

He texted Jess before he started rearranging his meeting. _She's nauseous again. Agreed to see the nurse. Maybe make sure no one gets fired or stabbed._

When he was getting in the air, Jess texted him that she was in the infirmary getting an IV, which made him feel better. When they landed he left the driver with his luggage and flew into the city in the suit. He expected Pepper to be waiting in the penthouse for him. Instead, he got Doc.

That did not make him feel better.

"I thought you were in London," he said, wondering if he should head to the bar. "It's bad enough you came back from London?"

"I was on my way home from London. We probably shouldn't both be out of town at the same time for a little while."

"I'm sensing that, yeah. How is she?"

"She's resting in the infirmary. We gave her two bags of fluids and two different anti-emetics via the IV. Apparently she hasn't kept anything down in three days."

"Jesus Christ," he muttered, rubbing his face. "She didn't tell me. Or Jess."

"I used to think Natasha was the worst patient in the building, but Pepper is putting in a solid showing."

Doc's desert dry humor was comforting and familiar. Tony allowed himself to smile a little. "What's next steps?"

"I'm hoping that getting her rehydrated and on medication will help. She wasn't sure how often she threw up. JARVIS said the toilet in your bathroom flushed 18 times in the last 24 hours." She paused. "Later we should talk about _why_ JARVIS is tracking that."

Tony shrugged. "He gets bored."

"The baby's fine. She may need IV's frequently. If it becomes daily running a PICC line might be a good idea. Save her the additional needle sticks."

"Okay. Should I try to feed her tonight?"

"If she feels like eating anything, get it—even if it's on the pregnancy 'no' list. But she may just sleep. I'm not sure how much of that she's done, either."

He nodded. "Thanks. And thank whatever nurse dealt with her. Tell her I owe her a bonus or something."

Doc nodded. "You want to come down and see her."

"Yeah, lemme just change clothes."

Ten minutes later he was down in the infirmary, in the small hospital-like room Doc had for keeping patients. Pepper was asleep, and she did look. . . pretty terrible. There was a chair to one side and he dragged it closer before sitting down to keep vigil.

Eventually, she opened her eyes and turned her head. "Hey."

"Hey. How you feelin'?"

"Loopy. But not nauseous."

"Well, that's progress. Doc said you can eat anything that appeals to you, if you want to try something."

She shook her head. "I don't know. The skittles were pretty good."

"I'd think they'd lose their appeal on the way back up."

"Surprisingly not."

"Well, I'll go grab a bag if you want. I won't even nag you to eat more."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't really even realize how bad it was."

"I know. Things like this can just sneak up on you." He reached over to take her hand. "Doc and I have agreed not to be out of town at the same time again."

"That's probably a good idea."

"I assume this is not a normal amount of sick?"

"No. Amanda is surprised at how bad it is. My OB kind of blew me off so I thought it was normal. Amanda wants to call and yell at him."

"I fully support her in this endeavor. Can she handle the rest of your OB needs for the foreseeable?"

"We didn't discuss it. I don't know that it's her specialty, but I have faith she'll help me find a better one at the least."

"All right." Sounded like everything that needed to be done immediately was done. "You want me to go get some Skittles and maybe some bread? And I'll find Doc and see if I can bring you back upstairs."

"Sounds good." She caught his hand. "Hey. I love you."

He squeezed her hand. "I love you back. You'll get through this. I'll help as much as I can."

"I know. Go get my skittles."

"Yes, ma'am." He dropped a kiss on her forehead and headed out to obey.

*

The basic reality of biology was a bitch. Pepper had told herself for her entire career that she could do anything the boys could do. She ran one of the largest tech companies in the world, and she did better than Tony had. Better than Howard had. She had pulverized the glass ceiling back into sand.

But men had no clock on their ability to have children. And they could do it without so much as missing a meeting if they didn't want to. She knew a smattering of women in powerful positions who'd had babies, and they'd all seemed to handle like a minor inconvenience that could be ignored.

Pepper was not going to be that lucky. Amanda had finally, finally found a combination of medications that kept her from throwing up all the time, but not before she'd lost so much weight the press was convinced she had cancer. It had, of course, taken them about two minutes to dig up that her mother had died of breast cancer at 39. That Pepper was in the midst of doing the same had become accepted fact very soon after. In their defense, she'd begun a full medical leave early in her tenth week because she could no longer function. That she had to be dying to leave Tony to run Stark was not a crazy leap to make.

Everybody said it would stop at the end of the first trimester, and when it didn't, her head got very dark. She felt a little like she was watching the reputation she'd worked so hard for crumble away as the stock crashed and the gossip carried on and Tony said impulsive things on TV. Publicly announcing the pregnancy had made all that worse. Her arms were full of IV bruises and she couldn't even stand to brush her teeth. Sometimes she'd lay there and ponder if cancer would be better. If being a mother was worth this. If she could even love a baby that made her this miserable.

And then she'd drag herself up, downstairs to the lab, and Amanda would pull out her transducer and let her listen to whoosh of her daughter's heartbeat. And somehow it managed to be enough. 

"We need to name her," she told Tony one night while she ate her dinner of Rice Krispie treats. She didn't know what he ate, as he had all his meals out of the penthouse. She couldn't stand the smell.

He tipped his head back. "Suggestions?"

"I don't know. But I need to call her something. Do you have any strong opinions?"

"I'd like my mother's name in there somewhere. Doesn't have to be the first name, though."

She munched her Rice Krispies for a moment. "My mother's name was Ruby."

Tony reached over to break off a corner of one the bars. "Ruby Maria Stark-Potts. Has a nice ring to it."

She blinked at him. In no way had she planned to broach the topic of the last name. "I expected a fight about the hyphen." Though he did, she noticed, put his name _first_.

He shrugged easily. "You're doing most of the work. Seems like your name should be in there somewhere. She'll be just as much Potts as Stark."

"I don't disagree, but you put your name in giant letters on everything. It's like a compulsion. You're sharing the billing for this." She paused. "You know I'm not actually dying, right?"

"That's reassuring, but you can still plaster your name on the kid."

"The tabloids are calling her Iron Baby."

"Well Gold Alloy Baby won't fit in a tight headline."

That made her smile, something that had been in short supply lately. "I'm astonished how easy that name thing was. Thank you."

He leaned over to kiss her forehead. "Would have been even faster with a boy. Tony Jr. Done."

"We'll discuss that if there's a next time," she replied, aiming for a diplomatic tone.

"Yes, dear." He stole more of her food. "Anything else I can do to ease your mind?"

She considered a joke about stealing food from their child, but she was too tired. "No." She rubbed her eyes. "I think I'm going to go to bed."

"Backrub?" he offered.

That. . . didn't sound half bad. "I'm gross," she warned him. She wasn't even sure the last time she showered.

"I'll hold my nose." He stood and offered her a hand to help her up. 

She let him pull her up, and hold onto her as they went into the bedroom. She laid on her side and let him rub her back. "Don't jiggle me too much."

"I'll be very gentle," he promised. True to his word, he just rubbed in little circles along her lower back, the touch remarkably soothing. 

It still made her feel a little sick, but then so did breathing. "What if it doesn't stop?" she asked quietly.

He didn't answer immediately. "Surrogate for the other embryos? Adoption?"

Now was probably not the best time to mention that it was _already_ maybe more than she could face a second time. "I mean how do I survive the next six months?"

His rubbing didn't stop. "I don't know. More drugs? Full bed rest?"

"I'm afraid I'm going to lose my mind. Literally." She sighed. "Which is depressing. All the extraordinary things I've been through and it's something that millions of women do every day that is breaking me."

He reached up to rub between her shoulders. "There's no shame in breaking now and then. Usually, you end up stronger."

"Sometimes you end up in the nut house."

"Well, if it comes to that I'll make sure you end up in a really nice one." He stroked her hair. "Maybe a very comfortable attic somewhere."

"I always had a list of facilities ready in case you finally hit bottom."

"Well, there you go, I'll just talk to Jess and use one of those." He leaned over and kissed her. "I don't think it'll come to that, though. You put up with me for a decade, I think you can wrestle our progeny another six months."

It was only six months. A blink of time in the scheme of their child's life. It would be worth it. It would. "You can go back to your workshop," she told him. "I'm going to sleep. JARVIS will look after me."

"All right. If you're sure."

"I am. Plus you clearly had Cheetos today and I can smell it."

"Right." A gentle pat on her back. "I'll see you tonight. Take good care of her, JARVIS."

"As always, sir."

*

_June, 2016_

Just past the halfway point, Tony went with Pepper to a specialist's office for a detailed ultrasound that took hours. They checked for everything under the sun, pronounced the baby healthy and sent them on their way. 

The images were neat to see, but they were also terrible quality. The printout they got had the resolution of a 90's webcam. "I need to make a better one," he informed Pepper as they rode the elevator down from the doctor's office.

"Better what?" she asked.

He waved a hand over his head, gesturing back up towards the office. "Better ultra sound. Take better pictures. Who wants to bond with a grey blob with a spine?"

"There was the part where it looked like gold goop." The tech had turned on the "3D" ultrasound, and it made Ruby look like an alien composed of metallic silly putty.

Good to know he wasn't alone in his disappointment. "See? I can do that better, I know it. I just need one to take apart."

"These ones are probably more expensive than the one Amanda has, but not by too much." Because it was for his baby, Tony would have bought the infirmary the highest-end ultrasound machine on the planet—but Doc had insisted it be portable.

They reached the lobby, and go out into the street, when Pepper stopped short. She had that look on her face like she did when some smell or motion had tripped her and she was going to throw up. She'd stand very still in an attempt to not making it worse. There was a hotdog cart on the street a dozen yards away. _He_ could even smell it.

"Aim for the gutter and then we'll get away from it as fast as we can." Tony was generally pretty pragmatic about vomiting - the life he'd led required it. Pepper's illness had shattered any remaining gross out he had.

"No," she whispered, with genuine reverence in her voice. "I want one."

He stared at her a moment, then the cart, then back to her. "A hot dog? Are you- You've been throwing up everything but Skittles and Rice Krispie treats for months and now you want a cart dog? Are you sure?"

She looked from the cart back to him, and then turned the full force of Pepper Potts on him. "I. Want. One."

This felt like something he should check with Doc on, but he could start the process at least. "Okay. The usual?"

She was staring at the cart like someone who hadn't eaten in weeks. Which, really, she hadn't. "Plain. Dog and a bun."

"Got it." He headed towards the cart and pulled out his phone to text Amanda. _Pepper is making me buy her a cart dog outside the ultra sound. How big of a puke bucket should I get for this?_

"Hey, one plain," he told the vendor. "Nothing but the dog and bun."

His phone buzzed. _If she actually wants it give it to her. Get her four. That's protein and carbs. If she wants to eat nothing but hot dogs till labor we can work with that._

Promising. _Got it. Thanks._

_Man. Now I want a hot dog._

_If this becomes a trend I'm sure you'll get a chance._

He brought Pepper's to her. "Amanda said enjoy."

She sidled over to the curb before taking a cautious bite. She chewed and swallowed, and waited. When she didn't puke, she carefully ate the rest of the hotdog.

When it was gone, he arched his brows. "Good?"

"I think I would like another one," she said slowly. "With mustard."

"You don't like mustard."

"Tony."

"Got it."

He got two with mustard—because he was a supportive baby daddy—and one for himself with the works on the off chance it was now okay to eat in front of her. She'd found a bench to sit on, and did in fact allow him to consume his hot dog. It was the first meal they'd eaten together in months.

Across the street, he could see a paparazzi with a long lens taking their picture from behind a car. Pepper must have seen it too, as she said, "Pepper Potts and Tony Stark consume cart dog, news at 11."

"You want me to call a drone strike on 'em? Or do you think it'll play well? If you're eating cart dogs you can't be dying."

"Maybe it will be good for the stock price."

"Well eat up." He took a big bite of his, then added after chewing, "I'm glad you're feeling a little better."

"I honestly don't remember the last time I was hungry."

"Does anything other than hot dogs appeal?"

She tilted her head. And then the woman who stocked a fridge full of organic food and ate carrots for fun, said, "Cheetos."

At least it wasn't strawberries. He scanned the street. "There's a convenience store down there. You want to go peruse the junk food aisle?"

She smiled at him. It was _really_ nice to see her smile. "Sounds like fun."

He took her wrappers and napkins and threw them away, then offered her his arm. "My lady."

They loaded up a bag full of junk food that struck her fancy—it was a pretty bizarre collection—and then took a cab back to the Tower. Pepper went back to her office; she'd been working full time again for the last month or so, slowly getting back into the grove. And leaving him with more free time.

Free time to go downstairs and talk to Doc about ultrasounds.

*

Hunger was a miraculous thing. Pepper really hadn't realized that until she stopped feeling it. She still had bouts of nausea in the morning, and once in a while she threw up. She imagined this is what it was like for most women. It was quite liberating. 

Actually getting real nutrients in her made her feel worlds better, and she felt genuinely competent at her job for the first time in ages. It felt good.

And then she discovered the internet had decided she was a terrible mother.

The pictures of her eating a hot dog had caused a remarkably virulent shit storm on social media. Tony and Amanda were rather up in arms on her behalf, which made it a little easier to bear.

"For the love of Christ, the way these people talk it's amazing we survived as a species before organic produce and wheat flax."

Amanda was kind of funny when she was outraged.

The ladies had called a lunch, mostly to support her and gripe about the paparazzi. Pepper imagined this was only the beginning. "Just wait until she's born. If I retain any flab, they'll call me fat. If I don't they'll accuse me of dangerous dieting. Never mind anything they might disapprove of me doing with the baby."

"You'll breastfeed and be labeled an earth-mother or feed formula and be accused of poisoning her," Jane said.

"Tabloids really seem to care about weaning," Darcy added. "Like your kid hits a year and a day and still holding a bottle and it's the end of the fucking world."

"And they will scrutinize your carseat installation with a telephoto lens," Maria said. "I've seen it."

"Tony is building a carseat based on the suit."

"They will probably not be able to refute that," she conceded.

Pepper sighed. "I should be used to these things. I mean, it's 'common knowledge' on the internet that I slept my way into my job."

"Life in the fishbowl," Darcy agreed.

"You can't let it get to you. Or you," Jane added to Amanda.

The doctor crossed her arms. "I still think a vitriolic press conference would make me feel better."

"Tony thinks somehow if he explains how sick I was, they'd understand. I don't think they will. The cranks will just insist if I at an organic plant-based diet and used essential oils, I wouldn't have any morning sickness." 

"Hyperemesis could use more attention," Amanda said. "But it's not your job to lead the charge."

"I've never been a fan of making public my private issues." She didn't campaign about breast cancer, either.

"I hate ignoring bullies, is all."

"Bucky does have a type, doesn't he," Darcy said.

Amanda threw something at her while the rest of them laughed. It was nice to be able to enjoy these visits again. Pepper rubbed her belly, trying to determine if that odd sensation she had been feeling was Ruby moving. People described it has flutters, but it was more of a weird rolling sensation, like something turning around inside her. Which, maybe the baby was.

"Tony is apparently working on an ultrasound machine that with display a 3D holographic projection," she said. "I can't decide if it will be awesome or creepy."

"Knowing Stark, probably both," Maria said.

"Also," Amanda said, "If he really succeeds it could revolutionize diagnostic imaging."

"He's been good at that the last couple years," Pepper said. "Doing something for self serving reasons that ends up benefiting many."

"Let's continue this trend. I want to be able to see what's wrong with people without opening them up."

"As always, I am to steer his evil genius to the side of good," Pepper told her. 

"You're doing the Lord's work," Darcy told her solemnly.


	12. Chapter 12

_July, 2016_

"What if I just zapped her with a tiny bit of electricity?"

Pepper swatted Tony's hands off her belly. He had been sitting like that for half an hour, determined if he'd just wait it out, he'd feel a kick. "You are not zapping her. She'll move when she moves."

"But she never moves when I try to feel her."

"Maybe she finds your touch soothing."

"I can't tell if you're trying to make me feel better or get me to let it go." He could wait all night. That baby had to move sometime. 

His holographic ultrasound had been a hit. The image of the baby looked, to him, like weird alien, but Pepper and Doc insisted it would grow to look more baby-like. Pepper seemed particularly enamored by the tiny, tiny fingers and toes. Doc was nagging him now to get it approved for mass production. 

He could see her, but not feel her. Pepper could feel her. "You will eventually, I promise. I have fifteen weeks left."

"I suppose it'll be too big to ignore eventually." He frowned sternly at her stomach. "Has anyone else felt it?"

"No. I promise." 

"Pardon me," JARVIS said. "Ms. Hill is looking for you. She's on her way up in the elevator."

Pepper sat up a bit and they exchanged a concerned look. "Is something wrong?"

"I believe here is some 'hot' intel on an object stolen from the Fridge during SHIELD's collapse. I'm prepping your suit."

Tony sighed. He'd been making an effort to be on "light" duty while Pepper was pregnant. But there were still some things that required big guns. He looked over at her. "You'll be okay?"

"I'm fine," she replied.

"It's just Doc is at a wedding. . ." he started. It made him nervous when she was here without medical care ten floors down.

"Tony. We'll be fine. Go Avenge."

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

The mission was crap. It was bad intel and a waste of time. He felt the worst for Barnes, because they'd gone and interrupted his weekend to drag him to this bullshit. But he could see Pepper waiting in the hangar for him when Barton landing the jet, which never failed to put him in a good mood.

Then the ramp came down, and he met her eyes—which were red—and didn't like what he saw. Fear, grief. He looked almost reflexively down at her belly, which was still as big as ever. If something had happened with the baby she'd be in the hospital. She wouldn't be standing here. He went to her and he could see she was clearly an inch away from crying in public.

He stopped a few feet from her, stomach in knots, and asked, "What is it?" He could sense the rest of them grouping up behind him.

To his surprise, Maria, who was standing next to Pepper, looked past him and said, "Barnes."

While she explained what had happened—Amanda was missing—Pepper seemed to decide she was done with stoic, turning and wrapping her arms around him as tight as she could around the bump. Minutes later, the jet was back in the air and he was standing in the hangar with Hill and Pepper. 

"Do we have any way of getting ahold of Thor?" Tony asked. He was up on Asgard for some sort of ceremonial event. "Isn't there that guy up there who sees everything?"

Pepper shook her head. "I asked Jane. They close the Bifrost for ten days for this event. Honoring the dead or something like that. He'll be back the end of the week."

He sighed and tucked her into his side as they walked towards the elevators. Hill had the techs on it, hopefully ones the spies and soldiers were back they'd have more to go on. Nothing to do but wait, which he hated. "Doc's tough. I pity anyone who tries to tangle with her."

"Maybe she'll build herself a suit and bust out," she replied.

"Nah, this is Doc. She'd invent a nerve gas and sneak it in the vents." Though that gave him an idea.

"No chemical weapons," Pepper said sternly.

He looked over. Well, she did know his facial expressions. "No, no. Of course not. I was thinking she needs a suit."

"Amanda?"

"Yeah. We mutter about bringing her along as a medic sometimes. I bet I could get a lot of medical equipment in a suit."

"You might want to run that by her before you build it." She hugged herself and rubbed her arms. "Assuming she's not dead."

"If they wanted to kill her they'd have found her body." This, at least, was something he was familiar with. "Someone wanted something. Either to use her as bait or something else. But there's no reason to crash her car and leave it empty if they just wanted her dead or if was some sort of random accident."

"I guess that's something." She sighed. "You think they took her to get at Bucky?"

Tony sighed. He hadn't wanted to voice it in front of the other man, but he was sure he wasn't the only one who'd thought it. "It's possible. Hydra lost a lot when Steve brought him over to our side. I wouldn't put it past them to try a Hail Mary to get him back in the fold."

"Maybe they're mad the Avengers are chasing them. Like enemies of yours that have come after me just to hurt you." 

"Possible. But there are a lot of easier targets besides Doc. Jane does a lot of traveling, most of it without Thor. The whole world knows where you are most of the time." He stopped. He tried not to think about people going after Pepper get to him. It hadn't happened in a long time, at least partially because she'd spent most of her time in the Tower recently. Ruby, when she finally made her appearance, was going to be even more vulnerable. . .

Pepper was looking at him in concern now. Focus, Tony. "Hell, if it hadn't been for this stupid mission, Barnes would have been driving with Doc to-" He broke off when he heard what he'd said. "Shit."

"They plan their abductions well," she said quietly.

"The mission was a ploy," he said, grinding his teeth. "It was shitty intel, a waste of time. It was just to get Barnes out of the way. I don't think this is about bait. I think this is about Doc."

"You think they took her for a reason?"

He scrubbed a hand over his face, pacing a little. "Say you're Hydra. You lost big when Steve took down SHIELD. Manpower, resources. Plus your best weapon. Now the other side has all your information, plus the only two successes of the super soldier program. What would you risk to get any of that back?"

"Taking the one person alive most likely to be able to _make_ a new super soldier isn't a bad start."

"Shit," he repeated. "This is worse than I thought."

"You need to go work?" Pepper asked gently.

He shook his head. "No. That's the problem. Nothing _to_ work. If she was bait or revenge then there would be demands. Gloating. If they want her for _her_." He sighed and looked at her. "You think you ever would have seen me again if I hadn't built that first suit?"

She tilted her head back and blinked. "God." Then she took a breath and looked back at him. "But you didn't have you doing the looking. You guys found the Tesseract." 

"Yeah. Yeah I did." He blew out a breath. "Well, as soon as the others get back I'll see if I can get Steve to argue with me. That worked last time."

"Hey," she said. "Come here."

Sighing, he obeyed, wrapping his arms around her as she did the same to him.

The first suit, he came to realize, hadn't gotten him very far. What it had bought him most was visibility. A large explosion by which he could be located. If Rhodey hadn't still been looking when the flare went up, he'd have died in the desert in short order. And so while Doc didn't build a suit, she'd managed to send up that flare, and they went to rescue her like hell was on their heels. And much like his captors' camp, they burned that Hydra facility to the ground.

Pepper was waiting on the line again, when he returned from the mission. He'd bet she'd been there to greet Doc's plane not far ahead, but she'd come back for him. The quinjet Barton was flying was not far behind him, but now Tony was glad he'd come ahead alone.

"Fire and brimstone?" she asked him as he pulled his headpiece off.

"Salted the earth," he confirmed, kissing her. "Doc okay?"

"Yes. She went to have a shower and visit the infirmary." She touched his hands, still encased in metal. "Take these off."

He shifted his arms and the suit released, letting him step out of it. He held out his hands obediently. She took them and put them on her bump, and he felt his daughter thump against his palm.

Grinning widely, he rubbed the spot gently. "Hello, sweetheart." He got another kick in return.

"She's been very active today. Maybe my nerves. But I thought I'd make use of it."

He kissed Pepper again. "This was a good day."

*

_August, 2016_

At twenty weeks pregnant, Pepper had been able to eat food again, though it had been limited—she had a huge number of aversions and still threw up. That had tapered off over the next two months, until she could eat completely like a normal person again. That lasted exactly sixteen days, before her Gestational Diabetes test had turned up positive.

She knew many women struggled with this condition. She knew almost none of them had a professional chef cooking them the tastiest possible diabetic food. None of them had a household AI who kept track of their carb/protein ratios and blood sugar numbers. She had it about as easy as possible.

But privately, it still sucked. Pepper ate healthy, but was a sugar addict of the highest order. On top of that, she had to schlep herself much more frequently to doctors outside the building. "I didn't mind monitoring a routine pregnancy, but not a high risk one," Amanda had told her. "Also, I'm really not an endocrinologist."

On top of that, her hips had started to hurt when she walked. She'd abandoned heels months ago, but now it seemed she couldn't even manage regular shoes. She was probably the only person in the world running a Fortune 500 company in a pair of flip-flops.

"So," Jess said one morning while going through her first-things-first list. "Darcy Lewis called me about scheduling your baby shower."

Pepper looked up from her laptop. "I don't need a baby shower. Ruby is already outfitted like the sons of a Saudi prince." Tony had been building baby gear for seven months now.

"I told her you would say that. And she said that the ladies still wanted to play stupid games and buy her frilly pink dresses and coo over you in an official way. Her words."

"Darcy is impossible to say no to," she conceded.

"She's remarkably persuasive. Can we go with next Saturday?"

"I'm free. I don't leave the building." Tony freaked out when she left. It had been happening since the kidnapping and they really should talk about it, but Pepper was exhausted and she had a company to run. Plus, whenever she went out the paparazzi took her picture and people on the internet discussed how much weight they thought she'd gained.

"Got it. Anyone not in your monkey circle you want invited?"

"God, no." She paused. "I can't imagine she'll fly across the country for it, but send an invite to Vanessa Rhodes, just in case."

"I'll send her information to Darcy."

"Make sure there's something I can eat?"

"She's already got the approved food list."

Pepper emailed her doctor later that day and got approval to have cake at her baby shower. 

They held the shower in her penthouse, which she gamely vacated for an hour, hanging out with Jane and Amanda in the doctor's apartment while Darcy and Nat decorated and set up for the party. When they returned at noon there was a banquet table full of finger foods, a smaller table piled with presents, and the ceiling was festooned with pink, purple and white crepe streamers and balloons.

"You really didn't have to do this," she told them. "But thank you."

"We totally did," Darcy said, hugging her. "We owe you from all the things with the shoes."

Maria stepped forward to give her a little hug. "Darcy is hoping that someday when she starts breeding you'll remember this and reward her in kind."

"I will throw her the greatest baby shower that ever was."

"Yay!" Darcy cheered from somewhere behind her.

The others came over to hug her as well. "How are you feeling?" Nat asked.

"A little bit like a whale with a defective skeleton." She said it with a smile, though. Somehow. Pepper turned again and was surprised by the person she saw. "Vanessa?"

"A baby shower requires at least one person who can tell you childbirth horror stories." 

Pepper hugged her. Rhodey's wife had never been particularly fond of Tony. Pepper didn't blame her, she'd seen him at his absolute worst. He'd almost ruined her wedding, for example. He'd spent the better part of a decade dragging Rhodey through his party lifestyle, while Vanessa was home with a small children. Pepper had cultivated a friendship with her, though, and was happy she'd flown to New York apparently just for this. "Thank you so much for coming."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world. How are you holding up, sweetie?"

"Pregnancy isn't sitting well, but it's almost over."

"It's worth it. I know everyone says that and you probably won't believe it. But once they hand you that screaming, scrunched up baby, you'll be glad you did it."

"You're right, everyone is telling me that," she said with a laugh.

Vanessa grinned. "Come on. I'll escort you to your throne."

Literally, It was a throne. They'd take a leather recliner, which seemed to be new (and very comfortable) and decorated it with ribbons and balloons and flowers. It had been a very long time since Pepper had been at some sort of even where she was the center. Probably a childhood birthday party, before her mother got sick.

They brought her with food, played some silly games, and then stacked a massive pile of gifts beside her to open. The chair she was sitting on was a gift from Natasha.

"It's a rocker, too. It's the same one I bought Clint. He said it's the greatest chair ever constructed."

"It'll be good to have," Amanda commented. "You're well on your way to some modified bed rest."

"Don't joke about that," Pepper said. She balanced her plate on her bump and reached for the next present.

"If I joke about it, maybe it won't come true."

"Or you'll jinx it," Darcy said. "Don't jinx the nice pregnant lady."

"I'm not nice," Pepper replied. She opened a box containing baby footie pajamas that looked like the Iron Man armor. "Oh my God."

"Jim found them," Vanessa said. "He insisted you needed them."

"I really do." She wasn't much one for wearing Iron Man swag. She'd told the girls once she had a complicated relationship with the suits. But Ruby definitely needed this thing.

Next opened a decorated gift bag filled with beautifully knit blankets, plus a tiny sweater, hat, and booties. The booties had a pair of adult-sized matching socks. Pepper grinned at Amanda, who she knew had knit them. "This is gorgeous. And adorable."

"I'm delighted to have someone to funnel my knitting to."

Vanessa turned. "Are you the sock lady?"

Amanda smiled crookedly. "I am the sock lady. And I take requests."

"My husband is obsessed with your socks. He doesn't want to wear any others now."

"I know. He's emailed me. I'm trying to find one that will approximate a camouflage pattern."

It was nice to see Amanda smile. She'd seemed a little off ever since her kidnapping. Though Pepper supposed that was normal. She'd been pretty bad after hers.

The gifts were abundant, and a mixture of beautiful and adorable and touching. She really did have good people. It had been a very long time since she had girlfriends like this. Her daughter was going to have the best aunties.

When the last of the presents were opened, Amanda brought her doctor approved cake and sugar free hot cocoa as the perfect end to a lovely shower.

The recliner was magnificent. She was still in it long after everyone cleared out. She was still in it when Tony got home that evening. He chuckled a little when he saw her. "Have a good time?" he asked.

"It was a worthy baby shower. I'm glad I let them do it."

"Good." He dropped a kiss on top of her head and surveyed the open gifts and torn paper. "Good haul."

He put his hand over Ruby, and Pepper put her hand on top of his. "Starting to _really_ feel real."

"In the home stretch now," he agreed. "Time to start hoarding diapers and panicking about the future."

She looked up at him. "Are you scared?"

"Little bit. It's a big thing, right? Be stupid not to be scared."

She rubbed his arm. "Yeah, but you're you. You don't admit weaknesses like fear."

He smirked a little bit at that. "But I'm going to be a dad. I have admit such things once in a while. Or she won't know I care."

"You're going to be a good dad," she told him. He absolutely had not admitted it, but she knew he was worried about that. He didn't exactly have pristine examples.

He didn't respond right away, rubbing her belly a little. "She's going to have an army of people to love her."

"A whole family," she replied. "Not bad for two people who have nobody."

"Not bad at all," he agreed.


	13. Chapter 13

Tony employed a chef, whom he did not envy. He and Pepper's combined dietary restrictions made for some interesting challenges. So even though Tony liked to cook and sometimes found it soothing, he let the chef do his thing. But breakfast he could still manage once in a while.

"Sir, you can't use that bacon." JARVIS was helping. Apparently.

He frowned at the package. "It's turkey bacon."

"It's also honey glazed."

He sighed deeply. "Seriously? Even honey is forbidden?"

"Honey is sugar. Despite health food guru claims that there are healthier sugars, to a diabetic glucose is glucose."

It was too early in the morning for this. "Do I have any breakfast meat I _can_ use?"

"There is sausage you probably shouldn't have, but since your issues are cumulative and not immediate, I won't tattle. Dr. Newbury seems to have larger concerns at the moment, anyway."

"Sausage it is." He tossed the bacon back into the fridge and dug out the sausage. "How is the Doc, anyway?"

"Last night she punched one of the security guards in the lobby."

Tony paused and glanced at the ceiling. "Did the security guard do something to deserve that?"

"Not that I could see. I believe she had a panic attack, and he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."

That certainly sounded like something she would do. "She in her office today?"

"Yes. Ms. Hill is handling the rest of the incident with the guard. An apology payment and a nice vacation would go a long way to avoiding a lawsuit, I believe."

He was tempted to ask if there was video, but that seemed a little voyeuristic, even for him. "Good to know." The sausage was started to split and he took it off the burner to go check if Pepper was awake.

She was just raising the bed to get out—he'd had one of those old-people adjustable beds installed to help her sleep better. "I smell something yummy."

"I'm making you sausage and eggs," he told her. "All approved by the eye in the sky."

She pushed herself carefully to her feet, and made her way over to her closet to get dressed. He watched her, making an effort not to hover. "Still counting the days?"

She laughed. "I haven't forgotten how pregnant I am." She swapped her pajamas for underwear and and a bra, and then pulled a blue dress off a hangar. Her wardrobe was pretty much all stretchy dresses at this point. She'd only really grown outward from the front, and looked as same as ever with her back to him, even this late on. She looked over her shoulder at him. "You okay? You've got a weird face on."

He debated a moment, not really sure what was going on in his own head. Then he said, "Doc had a panic attack last night, punched a security guard. I was thinking of going down to talk to her."

Pepper turned all the way around. "I. . . think that's the sort of thing better handled by someone in, say, HR. Someone with more training. And, well, tact." She was clearly trying very hard to be diplomatic. "This isn't a problem that is helped by one's boss marching in and yelling."

"I wasn't going to yell. Hill is handling the HR part of it with the guard. Frankly, I'm not entirely sure I'm Doc's boss, anyway." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Bad guys kidnapped her, injured her and tried to make her use her brain to make them powerful weapons. That's a scenario I have some rather specific empathy for."

"Ah." She came closer to him, and rested her hands on his chest. He absently put his hand over Ruby, giving her a pat hello. "In that case, yes, maybe you should."

"There's a non zero chance she'll punch me, too."

"I have faith in your ability to take a punch." She clapped his shoulders. "It'll prepare you for the birth."

He was pretty sure Doc packed a bigger punch, given who trained her, but then again, he'd seen Pepper take out Killian. So maybe he wouldn't comment at all. Instead he gave her a kiss. "Come eat your breakfast meats."

Once she was settled at the table with her breakfast, she waved her hand at him. "Go see Doc."

With one more goodbye kiss, he headed downstairs to the medical offices. He generally avoided Doc's office like the plague, but with all the scans and ultrasounds for Ruby, he was starting to develop a fondness for the sterile little rooms.

When he stepped inside she was sitting at her desk and looked up in surprise when she saw it was him. He took a seat in her guest chair, watching her carefully. 

“Did you need something, Stark?” she asked, sounding stiff and prickly as ever.

He really should have thought of something on the elevator ride down. Instead, he said the first thing that came to his mind, as usual. “When I had my first panic attack I thought I’d been poisoned.”

She sighed and closed her eyes. "Stark, I really don't-"

His first instinct was always to cut people off and shut them out, too. So he just kept talking. "No, really. Poisoned. I was at lunch with Rhodey and this kid came up to fan boy and he mentioned New York and all of a sudden I couldn’t breathe. I felt hot and sweaty. I ran out to the suit so JARVIS could run a diagnostic."

Her mouth twitched, then she conceded, "Well. You did almost die in the battle. Or did you actually die? I’ve never gotten an accurate description."

He'd been unconscious, and JARVIS had been off because the suit was dead. Steve had told him once that he hadn't been breathing when the mask was yanked off. Did his heart stop? He'd probably never know. And this particular conversation wasn't about New York, anyway. "Doesn’t matter. New York was a catalyst but I don’t think that’s where it started. I think it started in Afghanistan. You know, when bad guys kidnapped me, injured me, and tried to get me to use my skills for their own gain?"

The got her to open her eyes and look at him. She had a hell of her poker face, but her eyes gave away a lot. He'd clearly surprised her again, hadn't made the same connection he had. When she spoke it was very quiet, with none of the ice. “The one where you had to shoot your way out to find rescue?”

"That one," he confirmed with a little finger gun in her direction. "I got out because I built a suit. So I built another suit. And another. And I beat the bad guys who’d kidnapped me. And then I kept building suits. See, as long as I had a suit I was safe. Kind of like how if you don’t leave this extremely well defended building you’re safe.”

Doc's breathing had sped up and she looked pale. She did have it bad. “And New York?”

He'd be happy if he never thought or talked about New York again. But she hadn't hit him yet and this was his idea, so he'd wade out a bit further into unpleasant waters. “Proved the suit wasn’t a magical protection device. No matter how many I built sooner or later I had to face that. And when I did, I started to get better. You can, too.”

She was quiet a moment, looking at a safe, neutral spot on her desk. “Thank you. Tony,” she said softly.

He couldn't recall if she'd ever called him Tony before. He'd always been Stark and she was Doc. Coming down here had been a good idea.“And hey, next time you try to head outside, you could try wearing a suit.”

She laughed a little. “That’s sweet, but I don’t think I could work a suit quite as well as you do.”

“Well, no one does.” But that did give him an idea.

Half of an idea, anyway. Trying to figure out what someone like her would want in a suit would take some work. But it did give him something to work on other than baby gear. 

When she began doing exposure therapy, various members of the team went with her for support. He wasn't sure if anyone was organizing it or it was just happening. But when JARVIS told him that Amanda was going to try going outside, he went down and brought her one of his gauntlets to wear while she did.

"I don't know if giving me the ability to blast tourists back where they came from is a good idea," she commented, fidgeting her hand into the glove.

"But it will let you blast any bad guys."

"That is vaguely comforting," she admitted, glancing around the crowd. "You didn't have to come stand with me. But thank you."

"I got your back, Doc."

She smiled thinly and crossed her arms in discomfort. It only took a couple minutes for someone to recognize him and ask for a selfie. Then another. Soon, he had kind of a crowd.

"I can't decide if this is good or awful for my exposure therapy," she said during a lull.

"You want me to scare them off, say the word. I'm a professional asshole, I can do it."

"No, no. Watching you soak in their adoration is oddly distracting."

He grinned. "You should get in the pictures with me. You're an Avenger, too."

"I'm not one of the sexy Avengers. No one ever lines up to shake the medic's hand."

Tony bumped her shoulder. "I could make you a sexy suit."

"Do I need to lecture you about the impracticalities of boob armor? Because I will."

"I wouldn't want to break your sternum. It's not made of titanium like mine."

She grinned. "It's no fun if you already know what I'm gonna say."

"You don't think I looked into this? I'm an engineer. I'm the _best_ engineer. You'd have different parameters. Men and women have different bodies. I'd probably want to put the arc reactor somewhere else, for example."

Her eyes narrowed and she tilted her head. "Are you seriously building me a suit?"

"No." He wasn't actually building yet. "But I offered, so I've been thinking about it. Should you change your mind."

"Huh." She fidgeted with the gauntlet again, looking up and down the block. "Would be useless without some medical equipment in it," she commented finally. 

"That's probably a whole new kind of miniaturization."

"I'm telling you, Stark, if you could fit a hospital in a suit, I'd wear it."

He grinned at her. "Challenge accepted."

She gave him a nod and handed him the glove back. "My half hour is up."

*

_September, 2016_

"I offered her to borrow one of the suits. She said no." 

Pepper glanced up to see Tony flop into a chair. "I'm sure Amanda is perfectly capable of attending a meeting at the FDA in her regular clothes. Particularly since she took half of the Avengers with her." It was saying something that he offered the suit. As far as Pepper knew, the only people who'd ever worn suits were Rhodey and herself.

"She took a gauntlet," he said. "Called it a security blanket."

"You can do some damage with just a gauntlet. I should know." She looked up at him. "I'm looking at nanny resumes, how involved do you want to be in the selection?"

He made a face she couldn't read. "I was thinking we skip the nanny."

Pepper blinked. She wanted to make a crack, but he actually looked kind of serious. Which was crazy. He couldn't possibly think they could do without a nanny. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. I mean, we both work in the building. My hours are super flexible. We can make it work. And then she'd get to spend more time with us."

"Your work is also dangerous and you forget the world while doing it. I run a company."

He waved a hand. "I won't forget her. I'm already building that play yard in the basements. She'll have a great time."

"She can do all of those things, _and_ have a nanny."

"I'd just feel better if our daughter wasn't raised by a stranger."

"Childcare is not raising." Pepper watched him pace in a circle around the couch. He was remarkably agitated about this.

"It'd be most of the day," he replied. "And once we have it we'll get used to it. I'm just saying, why don't we try without one for a while. Try to make it work."

"Why is that necessary? We're really rich, we could have Mary Poppins if we wanted to." He waved the resumes. "I've got people here with graduate degrees."

"I don't want a nanny," he finally said, sounding very firm and serious.

This was ridiculous. "Why the hell not?"

"Because I was raised by a nanny and the butler and my kid is not going to think an employee is her parent."

Oh, we were poking childhood wounds. He looked sad and stoic enough it made her ache. She held out and arm. "Hey, come here."

For a minute she was concerned the stoic wouldn't let him get comfort. But he shuffled over to her chair and took her hand, rubbing the back with his thumb. "You'll be a good Dad. And she will know that. I promise."

He nodded, but she didn't think he looked particularly convinced. "Can we just try it without the nanny? You're going to take maternity leave anyway. And I can cut back on my projects."

"Okay," she said. "We'll give it a try, and we'll discuss it again when I go back to work. Deal?"

"Deal," he agreed with a smile.

"Excuse me, sir," JARVIS said. "I have Mr. Wilson on the line for you, he says it's an emergency."

Tony's brow furrowed and he glanced up. "Put him through."

"Hey," Sam said when he came on the speakers. He sounded like he was outside. "I can't get ahold of Hill. We got ambushed outside Doc's meeting. Steve got shot. Bad. Barton's flying back up in the jet, he needs Doc's supply of Steve's blood and both her nurses."

Pepper watched Tony pale as he met her eyes. For a moment he looked panicked, then grieved, then the competent superhero took over. "On it. I'll get them moving."

"Thanks. I'll let JARVIS know when I know where the ambulance is going."

"See you soon," Tony said, then disconnected. "JARVIS, get the nurses to get together whatever Doc will need. I'll fly it down in the suit."

Not sure what she could do—probably nothing, pregnant as she was—Pepper reached and squeezed Tony's hand.

He squeezed it back and mustered up a smile for her. "I'll keep you posted if I can."

"Send them my love. Fly safe."

"Will do." He bent to kiss her swiftly, then headed out at a near run.

There wasn't a whole lot for Pepper to do. It wasn't like she could go anywhere or do anything useful, gigantic as she was. She tracked down Maria and updated her. She called Jane—she and Thor were in the Australian Outback—and told them to come home. Bruce came up to hang out with her for a while, and JARVIS kept them somewhat updated.

Tony called her on the flight back, hours and hours later, to tell her Steve was still unconscious, and to not come down to the Wife Line. She heard him and then the jet fly in, but it was another half an hour before he came upstairs. He was still wearing most of his suit, and stopped in the doorway and started yanking off the pieces like he was desperate to get them off, dropping them carelessly on the floor.

Pepper got out of her chair. "What happened?"

"He's in a coma. Doc doesn't know why or for how long." He scrubbed a hand over his face. "I swear for a second I though Barnes was going to hit her."

She went over to him as he got the last of the suit off, and hugged him as best she could over the bump. "Jesus," she whispered.

He slumped against her, head on her shoulder. "The bullets hit his lungs so he didn't have air for a while, she thinks that caused it. But his serum should fix it and it's not."

"Amanda will figure it out. She's the best." She rubbed his back. "For now, how about a shower and something to eat?"

"Yeah," he said on a sigh. "That's probably a good idea."

Once he was in the shower, Pepper went and made scrambled eggs, because there was a very, very narrow list of things that she was able to cook, and omelets were absolutely not on them. She was just finishing up when he came out in flannel pants and one of his band shirts, drying his hair with a towel.

He managed a faint smile when she put the eggs in front of him. "Thank you."

"JARVIS told me they were aiming at Amanda."

"That's what Barton said. She stopped to say something to Barnes and the shot missed her by inches. She lost some hair."

She watched him eat for a moment, not entirely knowing what to say. "I think we should hire Ruby a bodyguard."

He stared down at his food a moment, then nodded. "I think that's a great idea."

"Not like a big muscled dude to follow me around. Someone who blends."

"There are female bodyguards. We can find one who won't scare the Central Park moms."

Ruby kicked, and Pepper rubbed the spot. "I don't know how normal a life we're even capable of giving her, but I want to try."

"I know." He rubbed his face again. "We'll do our best."

When he was done eating, she urged him to come to bed. She didn't think he'd sleep, and expected him to get up once she drifted off, but she thought he needed the downtime. A few minutes in the quiet to let his brain slow down.

He ended up resting his head on her bump, trying to hear Ruby's heartbeat. He'd done enough damage to his eardrums over the years that that was pretty much impossible, but he tried anyway.

"I'm not really sure I know how to do this whole team thing without him," Tony said after a while.

She sifted her fingers into his hair. "What do you mean?"

"We're two sides of a pole. Problem comes up we have opposite reactions to it. We pull each other to center and everything stays sane. Without a counterbalance, I don't know how to do this."

There was a uniqueness to Tony's relationship with Steve. Two stubborn people used to being the center of attention ought to clash. They ought to hate each other. And they'd clashed early on, but somehow had managed to achieve this equilibrium that held the team in place. She wanted to reassure him, but she honestly had no idea if the Avengers would work without him. "I guess you guys figure out a new way to operate. But I wouldn't discount Doc's skill yet."

He nodded. "She could probably do it. Yell at me. Or Nat. Some combination of the two."

"You respect her," Pepper said. "As an authority figure. Like Steve. It's. . . very rare."

She could feel him smile against her stomach. "I respect brutal honesty."

Ruby kicked the side of his face, hard enough he made stern noise, and Pepper chuckled. Then she sighed. "So much for being settled and stable, eh?"

"Yeah." He rubbed her belly. "Maybe we'll never be settled and stable. We can make it work."

"I might even let you build that armored stroller." Tony had a lot of hilarious ideas about baby gear.

"It'd be awesome," he said, sounding animated for the first time since he'd come back. "I could put in repulsers and a homing beacon."

"So it could fly home if anything happened?"

"Yeah. Whoever was with it could hit a button and it would seal up and take her home."

"Closed system with a rebreather like your suits?" Getting closer to her actual delivery made all of these protective things seem more appealing. Or maybe it was just what had gone on that day.

"Yep. Basically a pod that functions as a suit. Full life support. Protect against physical and chemical/biological attack."

"Don't make it ugly or scary looking."

He turned his head to look at her. "My designs are always user friendly."

"And often ostentatious." She rubbed his neck. "Go easy on the red and gold."

"But they're my signature colors! I'm thinking of having a coat of arms made."

"Well, you'll have descendants now. I suppose it's time. Though there's probably an argument to be made that the company logo is a de facto coat of arms for the Stark Family."

"The reactor circle at the very least."

"Are you scared?" she asked him after a moment.

"A little. I don't think anyone is waiting to shoot the rest of us. This was pretty clearly about Doc. But it does bring into focus how very much bad guys like to go after loved ones."

"I am _very_ aware of that." She still had nightmares about it sometimes.

Tony rubber her stomach soothingly. "I just want to be cautious."

"I know. And I do trust you. You've protected things well you've loved less." She put her hand over his. "I think she's going to knock us off our feet."

He smiled fondly. "I certainly hope so."

Pepper closed her eyes. "We'll be all right," she told him, though she had no idea if that was true. "Somehow."


	14. Chapter 14

_October, 2016_

Technically— _technically_ —Pepper had started her maternity leave. But as Tony left to go downstairs to the labs that morning, he passed Jess in the hallway with an armload of stuff.

"She says she's bored," Jess offered.

"She's a workaholic," he replied.

Jess raised an eyebrow. "Pot, kettle."

"I'm not pregnant. What is that stuff? Is it stressful?"

She made a face and sighed. "She told me to bring her things that would make her angry, because she's in the mood to yell at people."

He rubbed his head. "Well. Better them than me." Jess nodded and went into the private elevator, and he headed to the basement. 

Steve was still in a coma. The Barnes and Barton Sniper Party had gone and hunted down the people responsible. He'd wanted to be the voice of reason, but in truth he was glad. Coming at the Avengers should not be a survivable offense.

It had been a weird couple of weeks. Steve apparently had been hiding a girlfriend from them. Doc turned out to be pregnant—so Tony achieved his life goal of being yelled at by who different pregnant women in the same day.

There wasn't much he could do by hovering and worrying, so he spent time in the labs. He considered his conversation with Pepper to be the go-ahead to start working on his baby rescue pod and design and prototypes kept his mind occupied fairly well.

He felt restless in the afternoon, and ended up going up to the infirmary to see Steve. It was a weird thing to do—the man was unconscious, what could they possibly discuss? But he did it anyway.

And on this particular day, he finally encountered The Girlfriend. 

She was cute, in a girl-next-door kind of way. Blonde hair, dark eyes. When he came in she turned and offered him a faint smile. "Hi. Did you want to be alone with him?"

He smiled back. "Nah. Not that there weren't times in the past I'd have loved the opportunity too put his hand in a bowl of warm water." 

That actually made her chuckle, which he considered a success. "I think Doc would made you clean it up."

"And Doc I do take orders from." He sighed. "Doc, Pepper, and that guy." He nodded at Steve. "Sometimes."

"Sometimes he needs to be argued with." She held out a hand. "Sharon. Though we've technically met before."

He shook her hand. "I apologize for not remembering that. Don't suppose I was drunk or high at the time?"

"Hung over, I think. And grieving. It was a week after your parents died, you were having coffee at Aunt Peggy's."

"Ah. That'll do it." He paced around to the other side of the bed. "I wanted to come to the funeral. But I thought I'd make a spectacle your family didn't need."

She nodded. "Her daughter wanted it to be private as possible. I kinda had to sneak him in," she added with a nod to Steve.

"I'm impressed with him, you know. Even I have never, in my life, picked up a chick at a funeral."

She laughed again. "He can be very charming when he wants to be."

"My Dad used to talk about him all the time. I mean _all_ the time. I couldn't stand him, and went into our very first meeting spoiling for a fight. How he didn't punch me in the face, I have no idea."

"Yeah, he really seems to like punching people." Sharon smiled fondly, rubbing the back of Steve's hand. "He speaks highly of you now."

"Feeling is mutual." He inclined his head to her. "I'm glad he's happy. Life's better with a partner."

After nodding thoughtfully, she looked back at him. "Congratulations on the impending baby, by the way. I heard Pepper has had a rough time of it."

"She has. We're coming in on the home stretch, though. Eviction notice is eight days out."

"Well, I wish you luck. I'm an aunt many times over, I know those first few days are a heck of a ride."

He shrugged, with a confidence he didn't feel. "I'm Iron Man."

Sharon studied him a moment, in a way that made him want to fidget. Then she sighed and looked back at Steve. "He'll be sorry he missed the eviction day."

"Maybe he won't. Still got a week left."

"I suppose miracles do happen."

He hoped so.

That night when he and Pepper went to bed, he told her about meeting Sharon, and fell asleep with his hand spread over Ruby. He woke before the sun to Pepper poking him in the ribs. He tried to swat her hand away. "I wasn't snoring."

"I know. It's just I think I might be in labor."

He jerked upright, suddenly totally awake. "What?"

She winced at the movement. "I've been having some contractions the last couple of hours."

"Okay." He blew out a breath. "Okay. What do we do. Hospital, right?"

She shook her head. "Just help me up. I want to take a bath and see if that helps. Once it's a more reasonable hour I'll call Amanda for an opinion."

"You're in labor and you're trying to be be polite?" he asked incredulously, holding his arms out obediently for her to use to brace herself.

"We attract paparazzi. I don't want to go to the hospital until I'm more sure I won't be sent home."

He'd be happy to crush any paper who wanted to make a thing about her going to the hospital for labor. But she was the pregnant one so he kept his mouth shut and went to fill the tub. 

Once she was soaking in the hot water, she asked him to make her breakfast because the hospital wasn't going to let her eat. Then he sat on the edge of the tub and fed her bites of omelet. 

"Should I be timing the contractions?" he asked after a while. "Or, more accurately, have JARVIS do it?"

"I don't think they're close enough together." She opened her mouth for another bite. "I'm feeling kind of deja vu about this."

He didn't recall ever feeding her omelet in the tub before. "How so?"

"You fed me chocolate cake while I was taking a bath after the Stark Expo blew up. That night was the first time you kissed me."

Clearly he'd been too literal. "Ah, yes. Seems a lifetime ago."

"Several lifetimes. And so many miles we've come." Pepper looked up at him. "We're going to be parents soon. There are going to be three of us."

"That had occurred to me, yes," he said. "Too late to turn back now."

"No, but seriously. We're going to be somebody's parents. It's not like we have any shining parental examples ourselves. We could really fuck this up."

He offered her another piece of egg. "There's something to be said from learning from other's mistakes."

She shook her head, not wanting it. "Well, there are plenty of those."

Setting the fork down, he reached over and rubbed her back. "We will love her and each other. I think everything else stems from that."

Pepper took a fortifying breath, and then said. "Okay. Help me out of this tub."

"Time to call Doc?" he asked, reaching down to help her.

"Nah, they slowed down. I think it's a false alarm. Can you go find my bath robe?" she asked as he handed her a towel.

"I can absolutely do that," he told her, with a fast kiss on the cheek.

When he got back, she'd dried off and wrapped herself in a towel, yet she was standing on the marble floor in a puddle. He frowned at it, and she said, "Okay. Now I need Doc."

"You said they slowed down!"

"They did. But my water just broke. I think."

"How can you not know if your water broke?"

"I don't know! Have I ever had a baby before? Have you? The birthing class did not go into sufficient detail!"

"JARVIS! Wake up Dr. Newbury!"

"Yes, sir," he replied. Tony turned on his heel. He had a suit up here. He could put it on and fly her to the hospital.

He could hear her talking to Doc on he intercom, but she must have noticed where he was headed because she called after him, "Tony - Tony calm down, you do not have to fly me to Mount Sinai in the suit.”

"Well I need to do something with myself," he grumbled, stepping back in the room.  
As if on cue, Amanda's voice came out of the speakers. “Then tell him to make me some tea, I’m on my way.”

He made the tea, because what else was he going to do? Amanda came upstairs, checked Pepper out, and told them to head to the hospital. Pepper insisted they go in a car.

"I'm just saying the suit would be faster," he said as they headed down in the elevator.

"And more uncomfortable," she replied, leaning against the elevator wall. "I'm in labor, I get to win."

"I know, I know. I'm not arguing, just saying." The doors slid open and he offered her an arm to straighten up and walk out.

"Well, your saying sounds like arguing. Is all I'm saying."

He'd spent the last nine months telling himself not to argue with the pregnant lady. Don't argue with the woman in labor seemed equally good advice. So he kept his mouth shut as they crossed the lobby and out into the waiting car.

The paparazzi had, in fact, found them by the time they were getting out of the car in front of the hospital. Pepper gave them the finger. 

They'd reserved a private suite, but like trying to check into a hotel at nine AM, being a week early meant it wasn't exactly waiting for them. The nurses stuck them in a triage room to wait for the doctor and/or their room. It had two beds, and sure enough they were back ten minutes later with another pregnant woman, and a sizable entourage. Pepper glared at him with such force he wondered if it might actually set him on fire.

He peeked out of the curtain to see where the hell the nurse was, and one of the people loitering around the other pregnant woman exclaimed, "Holy shit, that's Tony Stark." There were half a dozen cell phone cameras clicking away before he could even reply.

Normally a round of autographs defused such things. But he was now risking the wrath of _two_ pregnant women so he snapped the curtain shut and pulled out his phone to text Doc. _Help._

_Is the baby crowning?_

In text, he wasn't sure if that was sarcasm or legitimate concern. _No, but I think she's going to kill me._

_I'm expediting your room. Two minutes._

"Amanda's here and working on the room," he told Pepper.

She scrunched her face and blew out slowly. "I'm getting very close to purchasing this hospital just so I can light it on fire."

"Remember, honey, we need to save something for her college fund."

"She'll get scholarships, she's a Stark."

Thankfully, the nurse re-appeared to collect them, Amanda on her heels. The husband of the lady next door apparently recognized her, too. "Gina, there are two Avengers in this room right now."

"Do I look like I care?" Gina yelled back. She seemed to be in a worse mood than Pepper. 

He and Amanda exchanged raised brows over Pepper's head as they wheeled her down to the private suite. "You should try to get up and walk around as much as possible," Amanda told Pepper. "Let gravity do some work for you."

"I will do so when we get to the room."

The suite room was very nice - Tony had certainly been in hotel rooms less extravagant - with a window, a remarkably comfortable bed, and a couple of overstuffed chairs. Once there, Amanda helped haul Pepper to her feet and took a turn walking next to her.

He leaned against the wall, watching them pace. She'd talked about deja vu earlier, and he felt it now. This was nowhere near the first time one of them had taken a slow, painful walk in a hospital room. 

Amanda chatted as they walked, which was unlike her, but probably an effort at distraction for Pepper. She was walking her through what to expect for the next few hours, which was good. Pepper liked to plan and hated being out of control, and natural childbirth didn't allow for either of those things. So whatever semblance of a schedule Amanda could give her would help the stress level.

They'd had an appointment last week with her obstetrician where she'd interrogated him on the parameters of her induction—what would happen when and where decision points were. Now instead they seemed to be on Ruby's timeline.

She was his daughter all right.

After a few hours of pacing Pepper said the pain was getting too bad to stand. Amanda checked her and said she was hovering around four cm and they had a long talk about the benefits of getting the epidural now or waiting a little longer. Amanda seemed to feel the progression was steady enough that the epidural would be all right, so they sent for the anesthesiologist and got Pepper comfortable in the bed.

Tony held her steady while they put the needle in. It was a big needle.

"You look a little green," she murmured. "What happened to 'I am Iron Man'?"

"If you have a terrorist you'd like me to blow up while making a snide remark I'd be happy to oblige."

"I'd prefer you didn't," the anesthesiologist said dryly, and he could see Pepper trying not to laugh. Tony could see the medicine actual kick in, her eyelids fluttering in a moment of bliss. It looked like someone getting a hit of heroin.

"Better?" he asked her, unnecessarily, as he helped her settle back on the bed.

"Yeah," she replied with a sigh. "This is not too bad."

*

This was hell.

That wasn't even a description Pepper used lightly. The extremis, for example, had been so painful all she could do was scream. Afterwards she'd been tossed off a crane into a giant fireball. That had also hurt. She'd had three different major surgeries. She'd thought she was ready.

The epidural had worked for hours and then stopped, enough she could feel lots of things she didn't want to, but not enough she could really move around. With all of her previous torments, she'd at least been alone, able to get lost in her head, or get out of it entirely. Slow or speed the passage of time and ride through it. But that had been all that she had to do.

Now she had company—the doctor, the nurses, Amanda, Tony. . . and some random people off the street for all she knew. And even more so, she had work to do. It was hard, and people were yelling at her. 

Why this nurse thought chanting "Pushpushpush!" in a chirpy voice was helpful, she didn't know, but she would give her left arm for one of Tony's fucking repulsers just to blast her head off.

Fortunately, Amanda had even less tolerance for perky than Pepper did and after the fifth or sixth round of it just said, "Stop that," in the driest voice possible, shutting the woman up.

"You're not pushing as hard as you were," Amanda commented after that round was done. "Do you want to try to take a break?"

"I don't want to do this anymore." She knew it was the wrong answer, but all she was capable of was honesty right now.

"Okay," Amanda said easily. "Do we want to talk about a c-section?"

"There is no medical need for that," the OB said from the end of the bed.

Pepper turned her ire on him. "There is no medical need for people to have boob jobs or nose jobs or liposuction, but people do it!"

"I don't think Pepper is here anymore," Tony whispered to Amanda, loud enough for her to hear. Normally she'd snap at him, but the assessment was probably accurate.

"Pepper," Amanda said, in that same calm tone. "Is your pain no longer being sufficiently managed?"

Another contraction came before she could answer. She screamed, and she punched Tony in the arm. He was muscled, he could take it. He might have flinched, but he stayed where he was and let her lean on him as the pain passed.

Amanda conferred with the OB a moment, then he left and she returned to the bed. "He's going to get the anesthesiologist to check your line. Tony can you help her roll to the side a little so we can look at the epidural?"

At this point, she was completely devoid of caring about her dignity, so she didn't care she was flashing her ass at the door when he rolled her over. Then he crouched down to eye level and breathed with her through the next one. "I can't do this," she whispered. 

"You can," he told her. "You're Pepper Potts. You put up with me for years, run a company like a general. You can do anything. And in the end you'll be holding our little girl."

"I can't, I can't." He couldn't possibly understand from his position at the side of the bed.

"I know it hurts," he said, holding her hand. "And it feels like it'll never stop hurting. I've been there. But the end of it is getting closer every minute. Only way forward is through."

She met his eyes a moment, just holding on. "Okay."

He smiled. "That's my girl."

They finished whatever they were doing behind her and he eased her back onto the bed. Amanda was leaning over the other arm of the bed. "Your epidural line was kinked," she told her. "So you weren't getting the right amount of medication. We've fixed it and cranked up the concentration a bit. I'm suggesting a short break for everyone to breathe and your pain to come down and then there's gonna be more pushing."

She took a deep breath and nodded. Someone got her some apple juice—which she threw up. She was never drinking apple juice again. The epidural started working again. It wasn't perfect, she wasn't entirely numb, but it was _better_. It was enough.

Pepper lost track of time after that. The contractions were on top of each other, and if that stupid nurse was chanting, she wasn't paying attention. Not to anyone or anything, really. Amanda was on one side in her peripheral vision, being calm and doctorly. Tony was on the other, hanging onto her like he'd let her crush his bones if she needed to. He probably would.

But really, this wasn't a joint experience. She was alone in her head and it was alright. Birth was a great equalizer. Everything stripped away, just you and whatever foundation you're made of.

_Close your eyes. Count to ten. Breathe._

It was hours or days later when Amanda tapped her leg. "She's crowning. Just a couple more pushes, hard as you can."

"I was already doing that," she replied, the words sounding as much like a growl as speech.

"Okay, poltergeist," Tony said. "Try harder anyway."

"Fuck off!" she yelled at him, but she did push harder. He was probably trying to piss her off on purpose. He knew how well anger fueled her.

Her OB was fiddling about between her legs, but the epidural was working well enough she didn't feel it. Amanda peeked down. "There's a head. Let's get the shoulder out and you can eat sushi and full sugar soda and all the chocolate you want."

She took a breath and nodded. Tony looked like he was going to pass out. She pushed again, and then she heard the baby cry.

There was a flurry of activity, then Amanda put a bloody, squalling infant on Pepper's chest and covered them both with a warm towel.

She touched Ruby's back. Her daughter. "Hi," she whispered. "You're real."

Tony laughed and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Holy shit."

"Look at her. Isn't she beautiful?" She was covered in blood and gunk, but Pepper didn't care. She was perfect.

"She is absolutely gorgeous," he agreed, with utter sincerity. "You did a great job, Mama."

She grinned at him, feeling tears sting her eyes. "Hey. We're a family."

He tucked his arms around the both of them, and kissed her. "Yes, we are."

Pepper got Ruby nursing, which wasn't nearly as hard as she thought it would be, and made an attempt to towel her off a little. They'd wash her and check her after. Ironically, _now_ the epidural was fully kicked in, since the doctor was stitching her and she didn't even notice.

She rested her head on Tony's shoulder. "Did you look?"

"Downstairs? No, I choose to remember it the way it was."

"Some things cannot be unseen."

"That's what I figured." He rubbed Ruby's back and leaned in to kiss Pepper again. "I'm so proud of you. I know that's probably stupid or condescending, but it's true. You were a trooper."

"I was." Confidence was not something she lacked. "Even if I did crack a little."

"Happens to the best of soldiers," he assured her.

"We really have been through hell, you and I."

"Several different kinds. And we always made it through."

She leaned on him while Ruby finished nursing and squinted up at them from her red, wrinkly face. "You want to hold her?"

He hesitated. She was pretty sure he'd never held an infant before. But he set his jaw and held his arms out for her. "You'll be doing this a lot," she told him, setting the baby in his arms.

He cradled her carefully, bundled up in the towel. After a moment of just looking at her little face he smiled. "Hi, Ruby. I'm Daddy."

She yawned, and flailed her arms. His smile widened into a grin. It was the craziest thing. She'd never watched somebody fall in love before.

Amanda hesitantly came over. "Whenever you're ready, we'd like to weigh and get an Apgar for her. And I can bathe her, if you want."

Tony nodded, and handed Ruby over with what seemed like just as much hesitation as he'd taken her with. Amanda took her to the waiting pediatrician. "We should make an announcement," Tony said.

"Everybody's in the waiting room," Amanda called back.

"Everybody?" Pepper asked.

" _Everybody_."

Tony smiled crookedly. "We've got a good family."


	15. Chapter 15

A couple hours after Pepper gave birth, they were moved from L&D to a suite in the hospital's luxury wing—this was Manhattan, after all, and he was a billionaire. They had a private duty nurse just for them, a real bed for him to sleep in, and a separate sitting room where they could entertain guests. Or, Tony could take the baby while Pepper got some sleep. Exhausted by her labor, she slept most of the night. Tony stayed up, bringing Ruby in every hour and a half to nurse.

The day he himself was born, his father went to work. He stopped by the hospital on the way home to peer in the nursery window, and that was about it. Tony wasn't entirely sure Howard had even held him for more than five minutes when he was a baby. Ruby spent her first night of life dozing on his chest, right over where the arc reactor had once been.

Somewhere around dawn, the nurse checked on Ruby, and told him he had a visitor. He looked up and could see Rhodey loitering in the doorway. "You actually reproduced. I'm officially terrified."

He grinned. "She's pretty harmless right now. Had to come see for yourself?"

"Of course I did." He sat on the other end of the couch. "She looks a little bit like an old man."

"I have it on reliable authority that's completely normal."

"It is, my boys all looked like gnomes." Tony had been the one to tell him his oldest looked like a gnome. He'd been a stupid punk, and horrified his best friend had a kid right out of college.

"Too bad you're out in California. Bet I could pay the boys enough to babysit."

"You know three of them are in college on the East Coast."

When he'd slept he knew that. Currently, he'd be lucky to remember the boys' names. "I'll be needing their numbers before you go."

Rhodey laughed. "How are you doing?"

"I'm exhausted," Tony admitted. "But I'm very, very happy."

"Pretty life altering, isn't it?"

"I would put it up there with the cave and the shrapnel. Just more pleasant." He paused. "For me, anyway. Pepper would probably disagree." Ruby squeaked and he rubbed her back.

"It's exhausting and terrifying, but so worth it."

"And you did it three more times."

He shrugged. "Well, that last one was an accident."

"Not a problem with us," Tony said. "Though I'll be happy if it's just her. The most spoiled little girl in the world."

"They don't need a lot of stuff. Just a lot of love."

Ruby began to wiggle around and make cranky noises. "Are you hungry again?" he asked her. "You just ate."

"That sounds like gas," Rhodey said. 

Tony frowned. "What do I do about that?"

"Burp her more after she eats. You want a good trucker belch. At the moment. . ." He leaned over and took Ruby, moving Tony's arms so she was draped on her stomach over one forearm, head in the crook of his elbow. "This always worked for mine. Helps them fart." 

It settled the crankies, at least. Tony patted her back and said, "Babies are gross," with great affection.

"Being very honest, Vanessa and I—and probably Pepper, too—are kind of looking forward to you getting vomited on for once."

He laughed, because frankly, nothing short of world ending could sour his current mood. "I'm sure she'll pay me back in spades."

"They do that. They heal wounds, too."

"Certainly have my share of those," he murmured. Looking up at Rhodey, he added, "Already coming out ahead of Dad, though."

"Not one for taking the night shift?"

"To put it mildly." He was too tired for a wittier reply. "Certainly didn't change any diapers or burp me."

"You're gonna be a good Dad, Tony. I promise."

He nodded, summoning up what bravado he had left. "I'm pretty good at everything else I've tried, so . . ."

Rhodey laughed. "This'll probably feel harder than all of that. Some days."

He was pretty sure this was the hardest thing he'd ever do. "I think I'm up for the challenge," he said quietly, mostly to Ruby. The baby let out a world-weary sigh, and snuggled a little closer. This was probably the best thing he'd ever do, too.

"I know you probably don't want to put her down, but I'd be happy to take her for a little bit if you want to catch some sleep. I know how weird you are when you're tired."

The idea of handing her over was bordering on panic inducing. But it had been well over a day since he'd slept and Rhodey had way more newborn experience than he did. So after a moment's hesitation he nodded and stood so his friend could take the chair. 

Rhodey took the baby from him when he sat. "Go take a nap with Pepper. It'll be vanishingly rare for a while, believe me."

That sounded incredibly appealing. "I will go do that," he told Rhodey. "Thank you."

"Welcome to the club, man."

"Thank you," he said again, with a grin.

Ruby had a bit of jaundice, so they stayed in the hospital as long as she needed the special treatment lights, even though Pepper was cleared to go home. The hospital was fine with it as long as they paid. There were perks to being him. And an extra day or two of professional nursing care didn't do any harm.

On their last day, Pepper was nursing and he was perusing the lunch menu to decide what to order when his phone rang. He grabbed it without looking. "Yeah?"

"So I hear you had a baby."

He was so surprised to hear Steve Rogers's voice coming out of his phone that he dropped it.

"Tony?" Pepper asked, concern threading her tone as he fumbled to pick it back up.

"Is that really you?" he said once he got it back to his ear. It was a little humiliating his voice cracked.

"Yeah," Steve said, clearing his own throat. "Doc fixed me. They gave me some of her serum. Apparently your daughter gave her the idea. I have no idea how. But, you know, thanks."

Doc had had a busy week. "You're welcome, three days old and already saving lives." Pepper was giving him the most baffled look. "Remind me to give Doc a raise."

"Sharon showed me pictures of Ruby, she's adorable."

"She kind of looks like a yellow skinned forest goblin, but I appreciate the thought. How are you doing? You mobile?"

"I'm in a bed in the infirmary. I haven't tried to get up, but my limbs all seem to be working."

"Sounds far better than a coma patient should expect. I think we're all coming home tomorrow but I'll make sure to come see you even if that doesn't happen." Pepper was grinning now, apparently understanding who he was talking to.

"You haven't blown up the building in my absence," Steve said. "I'm really proud of you."

"I was a little busy becoming a dad. But, the rest of them stepped up and kept me in line remarkably well." He reached out and rubbed Pepper's arm. "You let me know when you're well enough for me to mock you about your secret girlfriend."

"You won't be able to hold it in that long."

"You're right, I'm pretty sleep deprived, it effects the self control."

Steve laughed, and they hung up. Pepper reached over to squeeze his hand. "He's awake?"

"And his old self. Said Amanda fixed him, something about Ruby caused a lightbulb to go off."

"Well, that's the best news I've heard all day." She took her hand back so she could resettle Ruby. "You okay?"

"I am. I feel good. Would like to get back home, though. Start our life as a family, get a new routine."

"I don't know about routines. I think we're going to spend some time as the full time servants to an absolute monarch with backwards sleep cycles."

He paused. "That's a routine of a sort."

She laughed. "We'll figure it out."

*

The return of Pepper's ability to eat normal food felt miraculous. It was good, too, since she was ravenously hungry all the time. Though her body had proved somewhat incompetent at most facets of reproduction, it managed to make milk in abundance. It was something she found herself profoundly proud of. Since puberty she'd viewed her breasts a little like time bombs, just waiting for the day they decided to kill her. Now they fed her daughter, and Ruby ate like a linebacker. 

They had, however, become enormous, even more so then they had while pregnant. 

"You think you could handle her alone for a couple hours?" she asked Tony when Ruby was a week and a half old.

He glanced, almost instinctively, she thought, towards the BabyPod hovering in the corner. "Yeah, I think so. Long as there's boob juice in the fridge. You need to get out for a while?"

"I need nursing bras." And she'd need to pump first. Which she hated. The stupid thing was slow and uncomfortable. "I'll go hook myself up to the dairy and email the girls."

"Yeah, take as long as you want. You deserve some girl time."

She dug out the pump and all its bazillion plastic pieces. "Would you judge me if I got a couple of bottles of formula?"

"No, I am not a woman on one of the internet boards you keep frequenting."

That made Pepper laugh. "Fair enough. Though I probably need to pump anyway, lest they explode."

"No one wants that." He watched her fiddle with the pieces to the pump. "That is an inefficient piece of crap, isn't it?"

"It is," she said succinctly. "But it's a women's thing so no one cares. R&D money is not invested in it."

He came closer to peer at it. "The multiple pieces are for washing, I assume?"

"You have to take it apart and wash all the pieces. I just have a ton of sets and the kitchen team washes them, but I imagine that's a huge pain for most women. They're also all hard plastic which is not comfortable. And the suction is too hard. I could make you a list of complaints." She hooked it up anyway, because she had to. Then she sent a text to the girls. _Anyone want to go shopping? I've grown porn star boobs and they need containment._

_I'll come,_ Amanda replied. _Because I require elastic waistband pants._

Darcy's reply came immediately after. _I consider it my DUTY to help contain porn star breasts._

_I was hoping you would,_ Pepper replied. Tony was staring at her chest, watching the pump work, but they were past boundaries at this point so she didn't care.

The rest of them trickled in, including Sharon Carter, _Is it all right if I tag along? Apparently, I need vacation clothes._

_Holy shit, yes._ That was Darcy again. _Steve's awake now, we can ask you embarrassing questions_.

Pepper laughed, then texted. _Translation: Only come along if you're willing to talk about your sex life._

_I'm happy to brag about my awesome sex life._

When Pepper left a few hours later, Ruby was napping and Tony had her breast pump in pieces on his workbench. Finding something comfortable to wear had been a challenge, her maternity clothes being a too big and her regular clothes not even worth considering. A regular woman could just throw a sweatshirt over the yoga pants and nursing tank she was currently wearing, but people took her picture too much for her to not attempt decency.

Leggings, a tunic, and boots seemed to fit the bill, and she even put a little makeup on.

"Hey," Tony called as she opened the door. "When you get back, can I scan you feeding Ruby with the 3D ultrasound?"

Pepper turned around. "Why?"

"So I can see what's actually going on in there when she eats, in order to replicate it."

She may have created a monster.

The girls were all milling about downstairs, waiting for her. Amanda was in a very un-like-her dress and made a face when Pepper arched a brow. "I can't wear any of my acceptable for public consumption pants.

"I wore a lot of dresses at the end," she replied. "You want to come up and raid my closet?"

"No, thank you for the offer, though. I'm just going to walk out of the store with the first purchases I buy."

"I remember that day. Just one day none of my pants fit. I had to send Jess out to buy some and took two meetings sitting behind my desk with unzipped pants."

Amanda smirked. "It's amazing what a lab coat will cover."

There was a car waiting outside, and Pepper climbed in gingerly. Things were still a bit sore. "You'll be happy to know Tony is upstairs trying to build a better breast pump."

"Finally he's using his gifts for good."

"Not loving the pump, huh?" Darcy asked.

"No one loves the pump."

"How's it going other than that?" Jane asked.

Pepper stretched out her legs. "Pretty good. I don't really know what day it is, because she doesn't sleep for more than an hour straight, but we seem to be managing."

"It's Wednesday," Sharon said helpfully.

"Thank you," she replied. "And how are you doing?"

She smiled. "Better. He's up and moving around and has an appointment with a PT tomorrow. And Doc has ordered him to take a vacation, so he's planning a trip to Italy like we're going to conquer it, which makes him happy."

"I've always wondered," Nat said. "And I mean this in the most platonic way I can. . . does Steve look as good naked as it seems like he would?"

"Better," Sharon said immediately. "I've considered asking him to pose for me - I take pictures - but I think the embarrassment would kill him."

"So no-go on the shirtless calendar, huh?" Pepper asked. "Shame."

"Well, you know, maybe for charity."

"It would be crass if it wasn't."

Sharon's smile was downright mischievous. "I'll bring it up on vacation."

Amanda shook her head. "I still say James is not going to do topless."

"Different angles or poses," Pepper said. "They can show off what looks great and hide what doesn't. Tony has a scar from his collarbone to the bottom of his ribs he's not going to want to flash at the camera. But his back is kind of a work of art. For example." 

Amanda looked thoughtful. "James does have an excellent ass."

"Thighs, too," Darcy commented.

There were murmurs of agreement that for some reason made Amanda blush. Soon the car let them out to do their shopping—an upscale maternity store being the first order of business. While Amanda gathered herself a wardrobe, Darcy helped Pepper pick out bras. Her Milk Boobs were still several sizes smaller than Darcy's Everyday Boobs. "I'm scared of what's going to happen when _you_ have children. How high into the alphabet do they make these things?"

"The catalog I buy my bras from goes to M," she said and Pepper studied her a moment to gauge whether she was joking or not. "You should get a soft one to sleep in, too," Darcy said, flicking through the rack.

"Sleep. That's adorable."

"Fine, lounge."

She smiled. "It looks comfy, I'll trust you."

Darcy placed it on top of the pile. "Have you tried the tank tops with the built in bras? Good for days when you just can't bother."

She pointed. "I need the ones with the clips."

"Let's get two more than you think you need."

Pepper had quite the armload by the time she was done, though it was dwarfed by Amanda's. After that they went to buy Sharon some very _un_ functional underthings for her vacation. On Pepper's dime, of course.

"No, this is tradition. Everybody gets some when they join this wacky club. I'm happy to do it." Even if she did find looking at all the fancy lingerie in La Perla a little depressing given her current state.

"It feels odd having another woman buy my sex underwear for me," Sharon admitted.

"Hold onto that feeling," Nat said. "You'll feel odd a lot around us."

"We're like a big, weird, no boundaries family," Jane told her. "Especially Darcy."

"I ain't even mad," Darcy said, holding up a bra that was more of a suggestion than actual clothing.

Sharon came out of the dressing room in vintage-y looking lingerie. It was very 1940's. Pepper thought it was cute. But Nat said, "No, that's too forties looking."

"What's wrong with that?" Pepper asked. "Weren't you going for nostalgia?"

"And who would Steve have been admiring in dresses in the forties?" Nat asked with an arched brow.

Sharon went pale and whirled on a heel, yanking the curtain closed behind her.

Pepper was having a harder time ignoring the growing pain in her chest, and checked her watch. Two and a half hours is apparently how long she could last. With a sigh, she opened her purse and pulled out her credit card. She held it out to Darcy. "Tragically, I have to go. Floods are imminent." 

Darcy took the card as if being handed the holy grail. "I promise not to abuse this horribly. Just mildly. You won't even notice."

"Be good," was all she said. The said her goodbyes and hailed a cab so the rest of them could keep the limo for their adventures. She'd never had to bail on a Wives Club before, and wondered if it was going to be different now. People always say friendships change after someone has a baby.

The penthouse was quiet when she got back. Tony was in her recliner with the baby. He was shirtless and she was in just a diaper, so she expected there had been some sort of poop or spit-up incident. Ruby was asleep tucked up on his chest, covering the long scar. Be still her heart.

"Maybe you could do that as a pose for the topless calendar."

He arched a brow. "Is that back in discussions? Because I have some very avant-garde ideas for Nat's page."

"It came up while shopping." She put her bags down. "How'd she do?"

"Like a trooper. Drained your boob juice, pooped out her bodyweight, had an impromptu bath in the sink, passed out on my chest."

She sank onto the couch. "I need to feed her, but they say never to wake them."

 

"I'm sure waking her for food is okay. It's like waking men for sex."

"I can go hook myself up to the dairy machine," Pepper said. "She looks comfortable."

He rubbed Ruby's back. "Always good to have more back up, I suppose." He watched her got get the pump parts. "So about that 3-D scan?"

"Now?"

"No, no. Needs to be with her on you." He tilted his head. "So you are willing?"

"If it will help you make a better breast pump? Hell yes."

He grinned, looking quite pleased with himself. "I will build you the best breast pump ever."

She wasn't at all surprised when he did.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter occurs during [Life Makes Love Look Hard](/works/4136406/), and then the beginning of [Heavy Boots of Lead](/works/4373231/).

_February, 2017_

He could not possibly admit it out loud, but part of Tony was starting to _really_ regret not having a nanny.

Pepper was in London on business, leaving him home with his four month old daughter. They'd had an argument before she left, about the nanny. She wanted one so she could take Ruby with her when she traveled. Instead, he was home with her, and it was more stressful than he expected.

He couldn't work—Bruce banished him from the labs when he had the baby, even though the BabyPod could withstand a bomb blast. He spent Ruby's copious naps putting the finishing touches on his Baby Bottle Dispenser. It would be a vast improvement over having all those little bottles and bags of milk everywhere. Pepper called six times a day.

Then they had an emergency mission, and he had to steamroll Bruce into watching Ruby.

"It was worth it in the end if only to discover that he apparently has a lady-friend." Now he was recounting the story to Pepper, who had just come home.

It got her attention, too. "You're telling me Bruce Banner has a girlfriend?"

"I mean, he introduced her as his friend and he knew her well enough to call her up on a Saturday to help him watch a baby. She's about four feet tall, has two kids of her own and lectured me about starting Rubes on solid foods."

She looked back down at Ruby, whom she was nursing. "The books say six months."

"I was informed the books say a lot of things and both hers started before five months. Apparently once the milk stops being satisfying it's better to offer them something solid. And it helps with sleep." He shrugged. "Little bit of research backs her up."

"You know, if we'd hired an experienced nanny, she'd probably have known that."

"I still don't want a nanny," he said immediately. Pepper sighed and he added, "But maybe we should look into a babysitter who's not on the team."

Now she look up at him. "Perhaps someone who who could live in the Tower?"

"That makes sense." Tony was well aware when he was being played and he was also aware his issues with having a nanny were irrational and stupid. Life was all about loopholes. "Some sort of in-house, on call babysitter."

"What was her name?"

Tony opened his mouth, then stopped. Bruce had definitely said her name. Probably more than once. It had been a girl's name. But that was four hours of sleep and twenty eight diapers ago so there was not way he was going to dredge it up. "JARVIS? Who was the lady in Bruce's apartment yesterday?"

"Mrs. Violet Marsh. Widowed with two children. Her eldest, Ada, is a student at Laurel Crown and quite an interesting young lady."

"JARVIS, do I detect a note of fondness in your voice?"

"She asked some remarkably insightful questions."

A week later, Pepper informed him she'd actually hired Bruce's not-girlfriend. Apparently because Tony listened to her, which was rare. That and she was used to dealing with genius little girls. If there was a little bit of yenta-ing in her decision, he knew Pepper would deny it to her last breath.

Despite his total lack of free time, Tony got involved in the fitting of Violet's apartment. Bruce had told him her son was obsessed with Iron Man, so he got a hold of literally every piece of merchandise they'd licensed. 

"It looks like a shrine to your ego," Pepper said when he brought her down to show her.

"I know." He crossed his arms and did a little turn, looking around. "I'm thinking of doing something similar in our bedroom." She gave him a Look. "Just the bedspread?"

"I'll tell you what, you can decorate the guest room to your heart's content."

"Deal." He peered around the room again. "So apparently the girl loves Jane, so she's been doing some science-y stuff in her room. I'm thinking a Hulk motif in the master bedroom?"

She gave him a look. "Hilarious."

"Neil will love this," Bruce said from the doorway. Tony gave Pepper an unabashedly smug look.

"You don't think it's too much?" Pepper asked.

"Not at all. He's on the spectrum for autism." He reached up and tapped a mobile, set it swirling. "He likes to collect things and this will definitely feel like a complete collection."

"You should come down in the suit and introduce yourself," she said to Tony.

"Are we concerned that might blow his little mind?"

Bruce shrugged. "I'll ask Violet once she gets settled."

"I'm happy to do it if she thinks he'll like it," Tony assured him. "I just don't want to freak the kid out."

The next couple weeks got pretty busy, with he and Pepper finally ramping their workloads up to full steam. Having an In House On-Call Babysitter—Pepper always made a point to say the whole phrase, to needle him—was really, really nice. And it was nothing like seen-and-not-heard aspects of his childhood. His mother would have never socialized with the nanny, whereas Pepper and Violet seemed to become fast friends.

He knew she'd be feeling isolated, and longing for another mother to talk to. It really was working out for the best.

Then one afternoon he came back from some publicity event where he'd shown off the suit, and landed on the penthouse balcony. He could see Pepper and Violet inside, and when he opened the glass doors he was greeted by a small blonde boy running in an excited little circle shrieking, "I'man! I'man! I'man!"

Violet was grinning, so he was going to assume that was a good reaction. "Give him a minute," she said. "And he'll actually greet you."

Sure enough, after a couple more laps he sprinted over to Tony and held his hands up. "He'met peez."

He really couldn't say no to something that cute, so he took his entire helmet off, and gamely put it on the kid's head.

He _cackled_ and ran off yammering something to JARVIS that Tony couldn't understand. Violet and Pepper were both laughing. "You have made his _life_ ," Violet told him.

"Well now I want to make him a tiny little suit."

"Oh that would end so poorly."

"It wouldn't have any guns on it or anything," he said, and he could see Pepper rubbing her forehead. He took off the rest of the suit so he could go see his baby.

Violet was watching Neil run around. "I mean, maybe if I had an override switch."

"That's very doable." He reached for Ruby, lifting her up and blowing on her tummy. She squealed with delight. "How's my baby girl?"

"She tried banana today," Pepper said. "I owe Violet a new shirt."

"She really does puke like the kid from the exorcist, doesn't she?" At Amanda and Bucky's wedding, Ruby had spit up copiously and managed to nail herself, Tony, Nat, and some random dude seated behind them.

"Have you had to give her medication yet?" Violet asked. He and Pepper shook their heads. "Put down towels."

He had to admit, having someone dispense Mom Advice was kind of nice.

Originally, Pepper had intended for the not-nanny that they hired to travel with her, but having hired a woman with kids in school, she instead left Ruby home with him if he couldn't come along. One morning just after the weather turned, Pepper went to California and left him to pack Ruby for her her first trip to Central Park with Violet—and the highly competent ex-Moussad agent they'd hired as Ruby's bodyguard.

He packed too much stuff, and _may_ have slightly threatened Violet about breaking Bruce's heart. Slightly. But it was kind of his duty. He didn't worry at all as they went out. 

And then someone tried to hurt his daughter.

The incident was nothing, really. Sameen handled it, the guy didn't get anywhere near Ruby, Violet was fine. Bruce nearly lost his shit and she calmed him down—something Tony found downright miraculous. On a different day, that would be awesome news. He'd be happy about it.

But the thing was this: He'd once thought Pepper was the thing he couldn't live without. His fear he couldn't keep her safe had made him a little crazy. (Maybe a lot crazy. Four dozen suits was more a lot than a little.) Ruby was something else entirely. He loved her in a way he wasn't sure he had the words to describe. She was tiny and fragile and there were so many things he couldn't protect her from.

Someone had tried to hurt his baby girl. For a couple of days he didn't sleep. Then he got to work.

Suits weren't enough. There was only one of him and too much out there to be worried about. What he needed was an army. Bruce was distracted, Pepper was more so. So really, there was no one to tell him he was overreacting or going too far. And what was too far. The Legion, as he'd started calling the drones he was designing, would be useful for Avenger business, too. Crowd control, bad guy containment. The possibilities were endless. And with more Hydra bases popping up all the time, they were only getting busier.

"What would you think about building a bunker?" he asked Pepper one night after they'd gotten Ruby to bed.

"I'm sorry. . .what?"

"A bunker. A nice one. But somewhere you and Ruby could go if something happened."

She stared at him long enough it made him want to squirm. " _No_."

Her vehemence was unfortunate, as he'd just purchased an old missile silo in Idaho.

Well, better to ask forgiveness, he always said. He hired a few people to get it set up, gave them a huge budget, and kept it all off the books and the net. He picked Doc's brain for necessary medical supplies and told Barton where it was so someone not-him could find it should the worst happen. He trusted Barton to take the information to his grave should he need to.

He did eventually get her to agree to a safe room in the sub-basements, though that was mostly on account of the Hulk's protectiveness of Violet's children. That it got him a safe place to put Pepper and Ruby if the Chitauri came back was a bonus.

They could, too. There were hostile aliens out there, and they'd just barely beat them back. The rest of them couldn't possibly understand. They hadn't see the army waiting on the other side of the portal.

That's what he told himself as he worked all hours building his Legion. It was what he told himself when he realized they'd function better with a proper, dedicated AI. JARVIS was a marvel of programming, but he was still programming. For the Legion to function efficiently he needed a real intelligence running them. It was then that the idea for Ultron was born. And that, at least, he could share with Bruce.

When they got stuck, they probably should have left it at that. They might have, even, if a telepathic girl hadn’t filled his head with a graphic and incredibly real tour through one of his worst nightmares. Tony could never just let things lay, so when Loki's scepter turned out to house a computer of unimaginable power, neither of them even paused. Instead, they experimented with an alien force neither of them really understood, and for some reason felt they could control. What could possibly go wrong with something like that?

*

Pepper could compartmentalize. She'd gotten good at that over the years. Dealing with Tony almost required it.

It was a handy skill, on the the day she discovered he'd built a sentient but insane robot that wanted to destroy the world. His intentions had been good, but the consequences were horrific.

That first twenty four hours, though, there was too much to do to stop and think or feel. They were up all night that night—Pepper trying to organize an evacuation of Stark Tower, and Tony trying to get comms and basic systems back online, and make some sense of the mess left behind by the destruction of JARVIS.

Thinking about that made her throat close even though she didn't have time for that. She shouldn't feel this kind of grief for a disembodied voice in the ceiling. But he had been, somehow, her friend. A constant feature in her life for such a long time.

Tony could plow through and keep working, but Pepper had to stop every so often to nurse her daughter. Still and silent, sitting on the couch in Bruce and Violet's apartment, it was the only time she let herself cry.

Darcy found her. She'd been helping with the evac plans and had a question. Pepper tried to hide the tears and play it off. She didn't like anyone seeing her cry and Darcy, good friend though she was, wasn't the most tactful person in the building.

But she just came over, plopped on the couch next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. "I miss him too."

Funny of all the things Pepper _could_ be crying about, Darcy had hit it on the nose. "You're very perceptive, you know that?"

"People think that because I say what's on my mind I don't think much. S'not true." She gave her a little squeeze. "I think we all kinda thought of JARVIS as a member of the family. I used to chat with him. He'd help me with crosswords. If that's not a friend, I don't know what is."

"You know he was named after a real person?"

"I did not. When I asked him about the name he said it was some acronym."

"That's conveniently reverse engineered. His father's butler's name was Jarvis. Tony spent far more time with him than he did with Howard, and was extremely fond of him. British, too. You think that's a coincidence?"

"Tony's psychological problems are deep and robust."

Pepper sighed. "Ain't that the truth." She was still mad him.

Darcy rubbed her back in little circles. "Crazy people need the most love."

Ruby pulled off, sat up, and burped loudly. The sound made Pepper laugh. "Well, I suppose we should get back to work." She paused. "You're coming to the bunker, right?"

She looked startled. "Oh, right, you weren't here for that. Yeah, Cal and I are coming. Thor kinds put the hammer down and insisted."

"Well, _I_ would have insisted."

"I appreciate that. So does Cal."

It was the next day before they loaded up to leave for the bunker. It was a little too "deck of the Titanic" for Pepper's tastes. She and Tony were both exhausted, and she knew he hadn't slept at all. That morning she'd gone through old SHIELD files until her eyes crossed, and was thankful she didn't have to drive at all.

He insisted on installing all the carseats himself, and swayed into her when she hugged him goodbye. "Promise me you'll be careful," she whispered.

"I'll be very careful," he promised. "I'll see you both soon."

She was still angry at him for making this mess, but now wasn't time for that. "See you soon."

He kissed her, first on the mouth, then the forehead. "Safe trip."

They took the shittiest plane she'd ever flown on—Stark had really spoiled her—to an undisclosed location where the bunker was. The bunker itself was far, far fancier than she expected. It was outfitted for surviving the end of the world, for a significant group of people. Tony had clearly spent a lot of time, and a tremendous amount of money on this thing. Enough he would have had to deliberately hide it from her.

Today really was just a soup of lies, wasn't it?

She did feel bad she took her ire out on an otherwise nice looking man named Jack who happened to be the bunker's manager.

Darcy took over talking to him while Violet steered Pepper along. Pretty soon they'd been shown their suites and had regrouped in one of the common areas. Darcy had found snack foods and was munching Doritos. "Cal found the command center and refuses to peel himself away. Jack's got the doors locked so we're cut off from the outside world. No internet, but there's a movie theater downstairs with an impressive library."

Pepper rubbed her eyes. "I'm exhausted, I think I'm going to see if Ruby and I can both get a nap."

"Call me if you need a break," Violet said, clearly sympathetic.

"I'll be all right. I'm just going to lay and plot murder until I pass out."

"That sounds healthy," she said after a moment's pause.

"We all do what we have to do." She stole some doritios. "You guys should get some rest, too."

"That's more up to the kids than me," Violet admitted. "But I have fingers crossed for naps or at least iPad quiet time."

"If either of you need help please let me know," Sharon offered. "I've only got myself to worry about and that doesn't take up much time."

"I will keep that in mind." She scooped up Ruby from where she was playing with plastic cups on the rug. Ruby nuzzled under her chin and tugged at the neckline of her shirt. Any day now she'd figure out how to unhook Pepper's bra clip and then she'd never have any peace. "I will see you all in the morning."

Sharon smiled. "Get some sleep, Pepper. It'll look better in the morning."

"Thanks."

She went downstairs and nursed Ruby. The baby went down easily, and Pepper passed out not long after. She didn't know how long she slept, but it wasn't long enough before she was woken up by Cal's voice blaring from speakers somewhere in the ceiling. "I need Pepper and Violet up in the command center right now."

She sat up slowly. "JARVIS?" It was only in the silence that she remembered the last 24 hours. She could hear Ruby whining in the bedroom beside hers, but she settled down by the time Pepper got dressed.

Violet was already in the elevator when it opened on Pepper's level. "I don't know what's going on," Pepper said before she could ask.

Her mouth snapped shut and thinned. "That doesn't reassure me at all."

Pepper sighed. "Yeah."

They had their answer the moment they walked through the command center door. It had a bank of screens, and every single one was showing the Hulk fighting Veronica, the Hulk-control armor Bruce and Tony had built years ago, as a last resort. They were in the middle of a city and tearing it up as they went.

"Oh, my God," Violet whispered, voice cracking.

They watched in horror as the two of them tore each other up. Eventually, Violet had to look away, eyes bright with tears, and started demanding a phone. Her voice tended to calm the Hulk. Getting in touch with her was a line item on the Hulk containment plans.

"We can't call out from here," Darcy said gently. "For safety."

"Then I'll go topside, use the satellite phone-"

"No, you won't." Sharon appeared behind them in the doorway. "The doors don't open unless I get the okay from the team." She pointed to the screen. "That is not okay."

Pepper wheeled on her, venting her fear and frustration into her voice—which, being her, came out sounding downright hostile. "It will be even less okay if one of them kills the other!"

In a tone of voice that indicated being Captain America was somehow transferable, Sharon laid out exactly why she wasn't opening the doors ending in, "Door stays closed. Captains orders."

Violet spat out, "We are not fucking Avengers."

Unruffled, Sharon replied, "Today, you are."

"I'm not sure how we'd call them anyway," Cal said. "With JARVIS down I have no idea how to hook into their comms. They're not on regular phone service, they're a closed loop JARVIS could patch us into."

Violet's shoulders slumped, and she put her hands over her face. Pepper reached for her as she started to cry.

"I think it might be over anyway," Darcy said quietly. Pepper looked over to see the Hulk unconscious and surrounded by rubble. A moment later Tony came over, scooped him up and took off with him.

"They'll come here," Pepper whispered, nudging Violet towards the door. "Let's go downstairs."

She nodded and let Pepper guide her to the elevator. Sharon stepped aside for them to pass but didn't say anything, staying to talk to Cal and Darcy.

"I'm so sorry," Pepper said once the doors closed on them.

Violet shook her head, scrubbing at her eyes. "I've never had to see him getting hurt. I never _wanted_ to see that."

"I know," Pepper said. They'd talked about it on the flight out to the bunker. Pepper had seen plenty and didn't want to see any more. 

"He's never going to forgive himself for this," she whispered.

Pepper knew that, too, but didn't think she needed to say so. Instead she said, "We'll get through it."

Violet nodded, but Pepper didn't think she believed her. She did manage to get a hold of herself, digging a Kleenex out of her pocket and wiping her eyes and nose. Violet was one of those women who cried pretty and left no sign of it afterwards. So when they rejoined the kids even Ada didn't ask what was wrong.

Jane was watching them, and she stood up slowly. Pepper looked at Ada, and then said carefully, "There was a fight. I think they're on their way home now."

"Do we have an ETA?" Jane asked, just as careful.

"Not yet."

Ada looked up and turned to her mother. "Bruce is coming?"

Violet took a deep breath. "Yes." Her voice was amazingly steady. "But he had a bad day at work, so he might not be feeling very well."

Ada considered that. "Maybe I should make him a picture."

"That sounds like a great idea."

Not long after, Sharon came down to tell them there were no serious injuries and the team would be back around midnight. Pepper went back to her rooms to feed Ruby and think.

There wasn't even a real enemy. It was a monster of Tony's making, and now lots of other people were suffering for it. She felt guilty, like she was somehow responsible for him. Even though he was perfectly capable of making his own messes and only listened to her when he felt like it anyway. Look at this bunker they were in.

She spent most of the wait swinging back and forth between anger and sympathy. The truth was probably somewhere in the middle, but whichever side she was one at any given moment made her feel bad about not being on the other.

Tony probably should hope the pendulum was on sympathy when he got back.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next three chapters take place during [Heavy Boots of Lead](/works/4373231/).

It was, unquestionably, the longest flight of Tony's life. There was nothing to do but stare at the darkness out the windshield and marinate in his thoughts, which were getting darker by the hour. When he called Clint up to come take the controls back, his claim of being tired was a lie. He was _wide_ awake. But he literally couldn't stand to look at the "JARVIS is my copilot" sticker he'd jokingly had printed and stuck in the cockpit.

That and he was really worried about Bruce.

Everyone was sitting in various stages of misery, staring off into space. Bruce was wrapped in a shock blanket towards the back, so he made his way over and crouched down. "We're coming up on the bunker."

A look of horror and fear and urgency crossed the man's face. Like he was about to ask for a parachute.

"You're not going to vanish," Tony said firmly and Bruce gave him a startled look. "What, you think I don't know how you think?" He loved Bruce like a brother, but he'd never met anyone as eager to run away from a problem as him.

"The kids-"

"Will be fine." Hulk was many things, but not mindless. He'd known who Tony was when they were fighting and he'd know Bruce's kids. And anything Bruce's he protected. "You won't hurt the kids and neither will the Other Guy."

He didn't seem to be buying that. "He tried to hurt you."

Tony put a hand on his shoulder. "But he won't hurt your kids."

"You can't possibly know that."

Tony thought about a barren planet, his friends dead around him. A vision so shattering he'd caused this whole goddamned mess. "She showed us our worst fears. You gotta ask yourself. . . what did you see? More importantly, what did _he_ see?"

Bruce closed his eyes and swallowed. They'd built the safe room in the basement because he'd felt the Hulk wouldn't come out of the building during a Chitauri-level disaster unless he knew Ada and Neil were safe. Tony squeezed his shoulder. "Even he isn't going to make his worst fears come true." Then he got up and gave him some space.

It was dark when they landed, the bunker's exterior lights a sickly yellow. Pepper, Jane, Sharon and Violet stood on some sort of makeshift Wife Line. Tony was the last one to head out—except for Bruce, who hadn't moved from his spot on the floor. He didn't say anything, deciding this might be better handled by Violet. On the ramp he looked at Pepper, closing her sweater tighter against the wind, grateful she'd come up here considering how mad he figured she was. Then he made eye contact with Violet.

She had a book tucked under her arm. When it was clear he was alone and Bruce wasn't coming out, she lifted her chin and headed up the ramp. "I got this," she said softly as she passed him.

He nodded, and walked to the doors where Pepper waited for him. "Ruby's asleep," she said as he approached.

"Safe in her pod?" he asked. Christ he sounded tired.

She sighed. "In a portable crib. She can climb and I didn't want to leave her in it without the monitoring from JARVIS."

It was a bit like a punch to the gut. He closed his eyes and grit his teeth. He would not break down now. He was so close to the finish line, he wasn't going to crumble just yet. "Right."

She made a little noise, and reached out for him. If she touched him he was absolutely going to lose it, so he flinched away. He could take it if she was going to yell, but not if she was going to be kind. "I have to wait for Bruce before I can shut down the jet. You can go back downstairs."

Her silence that followed was as chilly as the wind. She went back inside without a word.

He lingered by the doors until Bruce and Violet came out of the jet a few moment's later. He still looked like he'd been through the ringer, and he seemed to actually be leaning on her. But he made eye contact with Tony when he passed and seemed to return the smile he offered.

When they were safely on the elevator he locked everything up and made his way down to his suite. Assuming he wasn't going to be locked out of it.

The door opened to his print, and the lights were dim in the living room. One of the bedroom doors opened, and Pepper came out of it. "Just checking on her, she's still asleep."

He'd kind of wanted to cuddle her and reassure himself she was alive and well. But, "I won't disturb her, then."

She came over and sat on the couch, rubbing her eyes. "Sharon relayed the briefing. Ultron and the vibranium and the enhanced kids and setting Bruce off."

"Yeah. The rest of them were down, except Clint. I tried to get Hulk in check, but-" He shook his head. "I don't know what the rest of them saw. Plenty of demons to mine."

She tilted her head. "They told me she didn't get at you."

He closed his eyes briefly. "I think she got to me before. The last Hydra mission, where we got the scepter."

"You didn't tell me about that," she said, then gave a chuckle with no humor. "Then again, why would you? Clearly being honest with me is not a high priority."

He'd known this was coming. They absolutely had to have his conversation. But man, was he not ready for one more thing. "I'm sorry," he managed to get out. Then he broke.

More often than he'd like to admit, he'd thought he didn't really deserve her. Right now he was particularly certain of it, and yet she reached out and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close enough he could sob into the crook of her neck. He curled an arm around her waist, hand flat on her back. She still felt different, after the baby, but still very much Pepper. Soft and warm and familiar. His port in the storm.

He didn't really know how long he sat there like that, crying too hard to speak or stop or even breathe. It was a very long time coming, that little breakdown. And he'd probably earned it.

"I'm so sorry about JARVIS," she whispered, rubbing his back.

Forcing himself to calm down enough to breathe, he nodded. "Me too."

For a bit they breathed together, her fingers tangled in his hair, and then she asked, "What did she show you?"

He blew out a breath. "Another invasion. Ships streaming down to Earth. The whole team dead on a desolate rock somewhere in space."

"Your subconscious is a quirky place, Tony," she told him.

"One room is full entirely of clowns," he replied, voice muffled in her shoulder.

He could feel her shake with suppressed laughter for a moment before letting it out. It felt good to hear it. When it passed, she said, "You've been afraid of the Chitauri coming back since the first battle."

"Yeah," he said on a sigh. Leaning back, he scrubbed his hands over his face. "There was so many of them, Pep. A sky full of them. No way they give up after one try."

"They were a mercenary army. Loki's dead and the Tesseract is on Asgard. There's nothing here for them to want."

On his good days, that was the logic he used to keep himself calm. This wasn't one of his good days. "I know," he said. "I know. I just. . . Some days I wonder if there's more to it."

"Your wonder becomes worry, becomes paranoia, becomes. . . " He could see her searching for the words. "A giant fucking mess."

"I can't argue with that." A mess was probably a mild term for what they were currently in the middle of. "I know I should have told. . . someone what was happening. When I'm in the middle of it. . . it all seems so simple."

"The instinct to not tell anyone—or particularly me—is probably a sign that your subconscious knows you shouldn't be doing it, and is trying unsuccessfully to alert you."

"Clearly it needs better tactics."

"We're not going to survive if we can't trust each other."

"I know. I'm sorry. I just. . . wanted to keep you all safe."

She lifted her hand to stroke his hair, and sighed. "I know. Doesn't make it hurt less."

"I'm an ass," he said. "I hurt you and it's the last thing I want to do."

Pepper closed her eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath. "First order of business needs to be stopping your deranged robot. After that's settled, then we need to figure out how to keep this kind of thing from happening again."

He nodded. He had no idea how they were going to do that, but he agreed it had to happen. "All right."

She reached for his hand. "You look like you could use a hot shower."

"I can think of few things I want more."

She stood up, and gave his hand a tug. "Come on. We'll kill two birds with one stone."

He got to his feet and let her drag him towards the bedroom. "What's the other bird?"

She looked over her shoulder. "The thing you enjoy more than showering."

Oh, he absolutely did _not_ deserve her.

They went through the master bedroom of the suite, which clearly needed more furniture or decor. He was lousy at decorating without Pepper's help. The bathroom was to his usual standards, though. "I can't believe you had all this marble brought down here," she commented, trailing her fingers over the top of the sink vanity.

"Well," he said. "If we're going to wait out an apocalypse we should do it in comfort and style."

She opened the glass shower door to turn the water on. "Only you," she said, fondness in her voice.

At least there was that. Most of the time his weird obsessions and foibles made her smile. "Only the best for my family."

Once she had the water at the right temperature, Pepper turned around, lifting a hand to touch the side of his face. "You know I love you even when you're an ass."

He leaned into her touch, turning a little to kiss her palm. "I don't deserve you. Or Ruby. Or pretty much anyone we know. Steve maybe. Steve and I deserve each other."

She laughed, a soothing and settling sound. "Yeah, you probably do," she said, then she leaned in and kissed him.

Sighing, he sank into her, fitting his hands to her hips to hold her close. She did settle something in him, even on a day as bad as this. If she still loved him and forgave him, he could get through anything. He felt her fingers under the edge of his shirt, and then she broke the kiss to pull it upwards over his head. Her nose wrinkled in a rather adorable fashion, probably because the shower was not just wanted but needed. 

Sure enough she stepped back, pulling off the tank top she was wearing. She gestured pointedly at the shower stall.

"Yes, dear," he mumbled, kicking off his shoes and shedding his pants so he could step under the water. The heat felt fantastic against his sore muscles and made the cuts and abrasions burn and sting.

He cracked one eye to watch her peel down her jeans. She turned slightly, out of what he assumed was self-consciousness. He knew the faint silver stretch marks that bracketed her navel bothered her. Much like the surgical scars all those years ago, he didn't care. He still thought she was gorgeous. But it was impossible to convince her of that.

Though he was probably the only person on earth who knew she was insecure about anything.

When she was naked, he reached out and tugged her into the shower, turning her so he could kiss her again. He tried to put everything he felt in that kiss. To reassure her without words, if possible.

He could feel her melt, arms sliding around his neck as she pressed closer. They kissed under the spray while the room filled with steam. "I only have girly soap," she told him.

"I'm secure enough in my masculinity to smell like orchids and jasmine," he assured her, nuzzling behind her ear.

She grabbed the bottle and dumped some in her hand. It was appropriately flowery. It smelled like her, which was a scent he loved. "Superhero thing probably helps with that," she said, spreading the lather over his chest. 

"I like to think so." He took the bottle from her so he could scrub her as well. "Maybe I'll put in an air freshener system in the suit."

"No, I like this," she said. Her fingers traveled down his ribs and over her stomach. "I like inspecting you after a big fight."

"Make sure all my parts came back?"

"Some of them are useful to me," she told him, kissing along his jaw. Her hand circled his cock and it was suddenly hard to pay attention to anything else.

"I assure you, that one is very well protected."

She sucked on his earlobe, stroking him slowly. "Good." He sighed, bracing a hand on the wall behind her as she touched him. After a moment, it occurred to him he should be returning the favor. So he flattened his other hand on her stomach and slid it down. She shifted to give him better access, leaning back against the marble tile. The quiet little sound she made when he touched her shot right through him.

He kissed her, then dipped his head to kiss the curve of her breast. After all this time, he knew her well, finding her clit by feel alone and stroking slowly back and forth, just the way she liked.

"Mmmm," she murmured. "This is why I keep you."

He grinned. "I'm surprisingly okay with that." Pressing harder, he shifted his hand farther, sliding two fingers into her. Twisting his wrist, he ground the heel of his hand against her clit as he stroked her.

Distracted, she let him go to grab at his shoulders instead. He didn't mind. This was hot as hell all by itself. "I'll make it. . .worth your while," she gasped. "Please don't stop."

"Oh honey. Not for anything in the world." He leaned in and kissed her again, pressing himself against her, pinning her to the wall. "Come for me, sweetheart," he whispered in her ear. She whimpered against his mouth, and he waited for it—the way she shivered, the way her body pulsed against his hand. She was so beautiful like this, the only time she ever just let go.

He stroked her through it, watching her until she calmed. Then he carefully withdrew his hand, kissing her lightly. "Hey there."

She gave him a drowsy smile. "Hi."

"I don't think I'm up for lifting you against the wall," he confessed. Plus the water was starting to cool. He imagined they weren't the only ones finding solace in a shower.

"Didn't even get to wash my hair," she said, though she didn't sound too upset about it.

"I'll wash it for you twice later. You can call in IOUs."

She turned off the water, and he opened the shower door. The mirrors were all fogged over, and it was warm and humid. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around both of them. Then she kissed him with an intensity that made him forget about drying off.

Holding her up against a wall was beyond him. Lifting her onto the marble sink top was well within his abilities. Once up, she was exactly the right height for him to part her legs and step between them. She leaned back a little, bracing her hands on counter and letting him look at her. She arched and lifted up so he could slide inside her.

She was hot and slick from her climax, closing around him perfectly. She felt so good it made his head spin and for a moment he rested his forehead on her shoulder to re group. She kissed his hair and rubbed his back until he was ready to start moving, slow and deep. She wrapped her legs around him, her breath coming in short little pants. "Good," she whispered. "Good."

"Yeah." It was good - better than good - but frankly he would have agreed to just about anything she said right then. He tucked a hand between them to stroke her again. "Do you need-?"

"Please," she gasped, sounding like it was hard to get out the one word. She sat up a little, grabbing the back of his neck and pulling him so she could kiss him. It was intense and messy and went on until she tipped her head back and cried out as he felt her come.

Sinking deep, he rocked into her as she rode it out, following her. Blood roared in his ears and he gripped the edge of the sink, shuddering.

She held on to him tight as they tried to catch their breath. She kissed his ear and his jaw and his neck and his should. Gentle, comforting touches. "I love you," she whispered.

He rubbed her back in little circles. "I love you, too, Pep."

"You okay?" she asked, probably because he was still clutching her.

"Yeah," he sighed. "Yeah." Slowly, he straightened, relaxing his grip on her. "It's good to be home."

He helped her off the counter. "I really hope this bunker doesn't become 'home'."

"Anywhere you and Ruby are is home," he told her honestly.

For a moment the looked at him with bright eyes. She wrapped a towel around herself, then kissed him. "Well, then. Welcome home."

*

Ruby woke up sometime in the middle of the night. She usually slept through fine these days, but with the disruption Pepper wasn't at all surprised. When she'd been very small she wouldn't sleep in the pod, preferring to snooze on a parental chest. Even now when she woke in the night, it was just easier to bring her to their bed. They weren't sleeping too well anyway.

Ruby demanded her obligatory midnight snack from Pepper, then crawled over to Tony, whom she preferred as a sleeping surface. "Da!" she said. Ruby only knew two words—that one, and No.

He lifted a hand and rubbed her back absently. "Hi Ruby, Dada's home."

"Da," she replied, patting his cheek. Pepper could see tension drain out of him, the kind that even sex hadn't been able to abate. She knew Ruby settled him, in a way she couldn't entirely understand. But it worked somehow.

"It's good to see you too," he told her. Tony had always had conversations with her, since she was an infant. Now that he got the occasional babble back at him, he didn't seem inclined to stop.

She told him something very serious, if incomprehensible, in her little voice. Then she sighed happily and rested her head on his chest.

He turned his head to grin at Pepper. "All is right with the world."

"She does have a way of putting things in perspective, doesn't she?"

"Absolutely." He reached over to pat her hand. "My girls."

"Tomorrow you're going to have to figure out how to fix this," she said quietly.

"I know. I'm hoping to get the rest of them involved. I got in this mess doing everything in my own head. I don't think it's the way to get out."

"That's about the most reassuring thing you could possibly say," she told him.

He grinned. "Well, I'm off to a good start, then."

She watched him. "I know you like to look at all the angles. If this goes south we should figure out where we're going to go."

"Yeah." He rubbed Ruby's back in small circles. "Bet I could buy an island."

"Not with your bank accounts frozen. I'm talking about the middle scenario, I guess. Ultron destroying the world probably doesn't need any input from us. I'm thinking more about where we go if you win and they still want to put you in jail."

He sighed heavily like he hadn't thought of that. Or, at least, didn't want to think about it. "Try to negotiate for conjugal visits?"

She shook her head. "You're too rich for jail. We've got money in offshore accounts, and Natasha convinced me to put half a million dollars in gold in a private bank in Switzerland. Your house in Dubai is probably the best place to go at least at first. The Sultan is strangely fond of you."

"Yes he does. I highly enjoy the fact we're discussing going on the lam, by the way. Being friends with Natasha has been good for you."

"I've had a lot of time to think."

"I see that." He sighed again, staring at the ceiling. "I can't ditch the rest of them. If any of them are being held accountable - Bruce, for example - I can't just run off to Dubai and hide."

She looked over at him. "You've come a long way, you know that?"

"I have grown a lot, as a person," he agreed, sounding thoughtful.

"You are still channeling things in unhealthy ways, though. And I'm not sure there's anything I can do about that."

"I don't think that wanting to stay by my friends is unhealthy."

"But in trying to protect them, you made whatever the hell is going on right now."

"All the more reason not to abandon them know," he replied, starting to sound stubborn.

"I know, I know," she said, reaching over to stroke Ruby's hair. "I'd be surprised if the rest of the others get blamed. They're just helping clean up the mess. But I'll plan under the assumption Bruce and Violet and the kids will be with us if he have to run."

That seemed to mollify him a little. "Plan A is still fix everything so no ones in trouble."

"And avenge JARVIS."

"Definitely that," he agreed.

They got a little sleep after that, as much as Ruby let them. Pepper took her out into the living room to nurse her and let him sleep just a little longer. Sameen had made a pot of coffee, and Pepper took a cup gratefully. She checked her phone, which had no signal for voice calls but still got text messages from their internal system. Apparently Maria was on her way in for a briefing, and Violet had offered to cook everyone breakfast. She just needed eggs and plates.

Pepper also needed to think of something to say to Sharon, who she'd been a bitch to yesterday.

Tony was awake when she went back into the bedroom and together they got dressed and hiked up to Bruce and Violet's suite. Most of the group was already there and she left Ruby with Tony as he went to check on Bruce. Pepper brought the small stack of plates she'd brought into the kitchen to find Sharon there, hugging Violet.

"Oh, good," she said with a relieved sigh. "You're not mad either."

Violet held out her arm, and the three of them had a group hug. Pepper apologized to Sharon for yelling at her—particularly since Sharon was doing the right thing. Sharon thanked her for understanding and just like that it was better. On to coffee and breakfast and for a few moments feeling like a normal family again.

Then Nick Fury showed up and it was back to the business of saving the world.

Tony went off to fight battles. There would turn out to be several battles. Pepper stayed in the bunker with Sameen, Jane, Violet and four kids. She waited. That was pretty much what she did. Watch disaster unfold on TV and wait to see if Tony was going to survive or not.

They took turns manning the control room since they were the only ones there. Otherwise they tried to keep the children entertained and pass the hours. It was the middle of the night when the fight in Seoul was splashed all over the news. 

The talking heads were still going on about it the next day while Pepper took a shift during Ruby’s nap. There was a blurb about a freak lighting storm in New York City that made her wonder if Thor had resurfaced. She heard nothing from Tony.

She did, however, get a call from Cal. “Hi. We stole a helicarrier and are headed to Sokovia to stop Ultron and rescue Nat. I need to come pick up Violet.”

It took Pepper a second to process that. “What happened to Nat?”

"Apparently the evil robot kidnapped her.”

She closed her eyes a moment. “How is Violet going to help with that?”

"She's not, but they're predicting an all hands on deck fight. Which means the Hulk. And given what happened in Africa people think having Violet would be a good idea.”

That was a fair point. “How are you getting here?”

“Someone will land and bring her up. Sharon says bring stuff but not more than she can carry in case we have to send Sam down for her. About two hours.”

That sounded like a not at all sketchy plan. “I’ll tell her.”

"Thanks. I'll be in touch if anything changes.”

He disconnected, and Pepper used the intercom to ask Violet to come upstairs to the control room. She started her request with, “Bruce is fine,” because that was part of the Mom Code.

Violet immediately smiled in relief. "Thank you. What do you need?”

“The team is going to Sokovia after Ultron, and they want you to come along.”

She blinked. "Do they want me to lecture him? Maybe tell him I'm very disappointed in him?”

That made Pepper laugh. “No, it’s going to be a Code Green and they think it would be good to have you around. Apparently Sharon and Fury stole a helicarrier.”

"Ah. Well, I've never been on one of those. Are you guys going to be all right here with all the kids and pets?”

“We’ll manage. There are all different ways to help save the world.”

Violet smiled again. "Sharon was right. We are Avengers, in our own ways.”

“Cal said to bring stuff. I don’t know what kind of stuff, but it’s possibly you might have to be carried up by Sam, for some reasons he didn’t explain.”

One of the things Pepper liked best about Violet was that nothing fazed her. It was clearly a skill honed by a lot of mothers, but Violet had it down to an art. "Never underestimate my efficient packing skills. Do you know how long I have?”

“Two hours, give or take.”

"Piece of cake.”

They packed bags—one with essentials, and then two others with clothes and toiletries for everyone, which she’d only take if they sent an actual jet. Pepper wasn’t really clear on what the deal was with that. Neil threw a tantrum when Violet explained she was leaving. Then Pepper went up to wait outside with Violet for her transport.

“Could I ask you a favor?” Pepper asked her.

"I'm leaving you both my kids under less than ideal circumstances. You can ask me whatever you like.”

“Nonsense, you’re leave at least one of them with Jane.” She looked over. “Nothing makes Tony as self destructive as guilt.”

Violet's brows went up. "And I imagine he's swimming in guilt.”

“Yeah. So just. . . keep an eye on him? So he doesn’t do anything too stupid. He’s not as bulletproof as he pretends to be.”

"I don't know how hands on I'll be. But I promise to do everything I can. And I know Bruce and the others will, too.”

“Thank you.” There was a roar above, and she squinted up to see a jet descending. “Oh, good. I have to tell you, being carried by any sort of suit at altitude is just really awful.”

"I can only imagine." Violet turned and hugged her. "I'll be in touch as much as I can.”

“Good luck. Keep an eye on the rest of them while you’re at it.”

"Of course. It's my job. I'm the mom.”


	18. Chapter 18

Tony was genuinely surprised blowing up an entire city—literally vaporizing the whole chunk of rock—at close range didn’t kill him. He added it to the growing list of things that should have killed him but didn’t.

Once back on the helicarrier he ate a sandwich and bantered as they headed home. Bantering he was good at. Eventually, though, everyone went to sleep and it was just him. He’d been given a bunk like everyone else. The bunk sucked and his mind wouldn’t shut off. He fished out the helmet to his suit so he could talk to FRIDAY. “Can you put me through to the bunker?”

"Just give me a minute, boss." He waited. The Irish had been a little grating at first, but it was growing on him. He was going to need to put an AI in the Tower and FRIDAY was the most complete one he had. And he liked that she sounded different from JARVIS. He felt like any kind of male voice would be too close to home.

“Hi Tony,” Pepper said when she came on the line. She sounded tired.

"Hi Pep." He wasn't quite sure what kind of mood she'd be in, but figured checking in was better than not. "We're done. We all made it out.”

“I know, Thor called Jane three hours ago.” And that explained the tone of voice.

"Sorry," he said quietly.

“I’m glad you’re okay. Ruby’s fine. We’re trying to figure how how to get us, five pets and four kids home to New York.”

"When the group wakes up I can probably send Rhodey to come get you all.”

“Why don’t you—“ she cut herself off. “No, nevermind, I don’t want you flying an airplane having not slept in three days.”

"Yeah." It had been his first thought, too, but he'd reached a level of tired even he knew was dangerous. "I'm not fit to handle a remote control car, let alone a plane.”

“He must want to go home to his own family. We’ll figure something out.”

He considered pushing it, but figured it might cause a fight and he wasn't up for it. "All right. Darcy or Hill might be able to help with logistics, too.”

“Good idea. They’re probably less tired, too.” There was a long pause, then she quietly asked, “Are you okay?”

A year ago he would had assured her of course he was, with a quip and a mustered happy tone. But tonight, he just didn't have the energy for it. "I can't sleep.”

“Doc probably has something that can help. Or do you want to talk about it?”

The first one would require waking Amanda up. Which kind of scared him. "I blew up a city today.”

“We saw that on the news. The news said you guys got it evacuated.” She paused. “Our lives are so strange I just accepted that. Like, sure, exploding flying city. Why not?” He could hear her rustling around with something. “Hang on, Ruby needs to eat. And then I really want to hear how you _got_ to that point.”

He waited for her to get settled, then told her everything. Ultron, the vibranium, the flying city. The debate about evacuation versus noble sacrifice. Fury's cavalry. Even Pietro getting shot and the Hulk and Bruce getting a intercom.

"In the end, Vision tracked down the last of the bots, so we're good. Minus a big chunk of Sokovia, of course.”

“I still can’t believe JARVIS has a body. Sort of. I also can’t believe Steve tried to go down with the ship and Sharon didn’t beat him unconscious with his own shield.”

"In fairness, that's probably happening in their bunk as we speak. Though if Doc had had more time she might have saved her the trouble.”

“I admit I’m happy someone else took on that suicide play mantle this time.”

"I assure you, I'd have been hauling ass out of there as fast as possible." He probably would have felt guilty as hell about it later, but fuck it, he had a kid to get home to.

“Thank you,” she said. “Ruby and I need you.”

"You were both on my mind," he told her honestly.

“So you think we’re going to have to go on the lam?”

"Probably not. Sharon's going to make phone calls and see what needs doing. Early casualty counts are pretty low. We'll see how it plays out.”

“I suppose that’s the best we can hope for at the moment.”

"I'm not currently being hauled to the RAFT, so yeah." He sighed and tipped his head back. "I can't wait to see you.”

“I will try my best to be there.” He could hear Ruby fussing now. “I need to go put her down.”

"All right. I'll try to get some sleep." That was a lie, but it might make her feel better. "Love you.”

“I love you, too,” she replied. As long as he had that, he’d be okay.

He took the helmet off and gave attempting to sleep a good five minutes, because he really did need to stop baldly lying to her. But it wasn’t happening. He did, however, have a brilliant idea. He grabbed the helmet again. “FRIDAY, is Vision asleep?”

"He seems to be awake, though I'm not really sure what awake and asleep mean for him.”

Close enough. “Get him on the line.”

After a moment, Vision's voice came over the com, "Yes, Mr. Stark?"

Tony had a moment of stomach wrenching dissonance at hearing JARVIS's voice coming out of the helmet. “Hey. Do you need sleep and can you fly an airplane?”

"I believe I require periods of rest to recharge, but not as regularly as a human might. And yes, I can fly an airplane.”

“I need someone to go get Pepper and Jane and the kids and fly them back to New York.”

"I'd be happy to help. Shall I speak to Ms. Hill regarding a jet?”

“They have one at the bunker, just no one there to fly it.”

"Excellent. I'll depart immediately.”

Now that that was taken care of, Tony went for a walk around the helicarrier. Someone had told him it was the same one from the Battle of New York. That had a certain circular poetry to it. You could still see bits of the damage, like it hadn’t been fully refurbished. He wandered into Doc’s hastily set up infirmary. Sokovian doctors and nurses were moving around the room looking after the collection of patients that were there for observation. He made his way to the room where Doc had stuck the Maximoffs. 

Wanda looked to have been dozing, but she looked up abruptly when he came in. She looked a little wary. “Mr. Stark.”

"Hi." He glanced over at her brother and the many monitors hooked to him. "How's he doing?”

“The doctor says very good. He heals different from normal people.”

"Yeah, we got a couple of those. And Doc knows how to treat them. If she says he's all right, he is.”

She looked at Pietro for a moment. “In our heads, we had made you into a monster. Something to be afraid of and blame for our suffering. What’s the English. . .boogeyman?”

He smiled a little. "Yeah, that's about right." He sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I'm guessing you weren't the only kids in the world that felt that way.”

“I think in the end I am the monster.”

"Nah," he said quietly. "We're not monsters. We're just people. We do our best, with the information we have. And sometimes we fuck up royally.”

“The world is going to blame you for this, even though it’s my fault.”

"They will. And I'll do what I can to fix it. The rest of them will back me up. Sharon Carter will smooth as many ruffled feathers as possible. And you and your brother get a second chance. It's not a perfect ending, but it's not all bad. Sometimes that's how it works." 

“What are you going to do with us?”

"For now, we're going home. I'm guessing Doc'll want to keep any eye on your brother a while longer. After that?" He shrugged. "Not entirely up to me. I haven't taken the temperature of the others, but as far as I'm concerned you're welcome to stick around or strike out on your own.”

“They gave us these powers to do evil. I’d like to do good.” She shook her head. “You’re sure?”

"I am. People have given me second chances when I didn't deserve it. Least I could do is give one to you.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “For what I did to you. If there is any thing I can do to make amends. . .”

"I'll give it some thought," he told her. "For now, try to get some sleep. It's been a long day.”

She smiled. “It’s not coming easy tonight.”

"We have that in common," he told her. "But it was worth a try.”

Tony wandered for bit more after that. Then he found himself somewhere to sit and think and watch the clouds go by. There was coffee. That was where he was sitting when Amanda came to call him on his shit.

Amanda's version of tough love was a little harsher than most people's. This was the woman who had laid out in great detail how he could die or be a vegetable if he didn't modify his lifestyle. So it didn't really surprise him that she thought of Mother Nature as someone who simply tried to "kill you harder."

Still, she made a good point. And he was just tired and beaten down enough to hear it. It wasn't a great feeling, but maybe there was hope at the other end of it. Even if it did remind him rather bitterly of his father. "I don't want to be like him, Doc. So frustrated about all the many things he couldn't do that he couldn't see everything he could."

She looked thoughtful a moment, then said probably the most surprising thing of the night. "It may not seem like it to an outsider, but you and I? We're cut from the same cloth." Much like the rest of the tough love, it hit him harder than it should have. Their methods might be different. But a doctor and and engineer weren't that far apart, on the grand scheme of things. Both trying to make the world a better place. Both driven by logic and discovery. So when she promised him, "You are not going to become your father. Because I will kick your fucking ass long before it happens," he absolutely believed her.

“Deal,” he told her. She drank her tea and he drank is coffee. “I invited the Maximoffs to come back to the Tower.”

She nodded. "I expected as much. I wanted another day or two to watch him, anyway.”

“You think anyone would object to them staying?”

Another pause as she thought it over. "Clint and Nat seemed okay. Steve brought them on board. Bruce seemed grateful to her for letting him communicate with Hulk." Doc lifted a shoulder. "Maria might be cranky. But I think most of us accept that people make mistakes. And mistakes at our level tend to be worse than leaving the milk out.”

“Hill and I have tussled about that kind of thing before.”

"Oh, I'm sure. I remember James's early days.”

He gestured at her. “And look how well that turned out.”

"He's a valued member of the team and keeps your cranky doctor in line. Win-win.”

“I try to give Hill the benefit of the doubt where I can, though. She did find you.”

Doc nodded. "She's got good instincts and she wants to protect us. It makes her conservative."

"And paranoid."

"Only if they're not out to get us.”

That made him chuckle. “So. . . would now be a good time to debate the evolutionary weaknesses of the human body?”

She shrugged. "Good a time as any. First, I'm going to get some more tea.”

*

Meeting the purple android that sounded like JARVIS was one of the stranger moments of what was already a crazy week. Jane and Pepper decided they did not want to be the ones to try and explain all of this to Ada, so they had him stay in the cockpit and not use the intercom. 

Then her and Jane and Sameen got four kids, four cats, and one dog into a van and across the city from the airport. Then they had to put all of said pets in their apartments, which took some doing without JARVIS or their occupants handprints to open the doors. Sameen took Panzer, the dog, down for a walk and Pepper and Jane spent twenty minutes chasing Barnabus, Sharon’s surprisingly sprightly cat, around the Avengers hallway.

They just took the kids up to the penthouse, and somehow managed to get Ruby and Edie down for naps. Jane took Ada and Neil downstairs to her apartment for a change of scenery, and Pepper flopped on the couch.

She couldn’t remember ever having been this tired. 

She must have dozed off for a while because she was awakened by Jane quietly calling her from the doorway. "Vision says the others will be here soon.”

“Did he give an ETA?” She sat up. “I can go wake Edie.”

"Under half an hour. I guess they've left the big carrier and are coming in by jet.”

“Well, I can feed her so she’s not cranky.” She looked over at Jane “Thank you, by the way. I think I literally would have died otherwise.”

She laughed. "Not a problem. It's always good to have friends in the chaos.”

Pepper quickly realized without JARVIS she couldn’t really leave Ruby sleeping, so she had to wake her up and take her downstairs with them to wait for the jet. Jane had her hands full with Neil, so Pepper had a baby on each hip while they stood on the Wife Line.

Edie started wiggling and Pepper was a little afraid she might drop her just as the jet came in, when Ada reached up and put a hand on the baby's back, holding her against Pepper's side. Edie squawked and Ada started scritching her back which seemed to settle her.

The jet’s gate opened and people poured out. Amanda made a beeline for her and Pepper turned her body so the other woman could take her baby before Pepper lost her grip on either her or Ruby, who was now also flailing.

Amanda scooped Edie up and pressed her against her chest. "Thank you," she told Pepper. 

Before Pepper could reply, Bucky appeared beside Amanda and wrapped her and the baby in a hug. Pepper shifted Ruby into both arms and took a step back from the crowd. Tony was probably around here somewhere.

Nat and Clint passed by and she told them London was in their apartment. They made their way to the elevators holding hands and looking exhausted.

"Hey," Tony said at her elbow, one arm going around her and Ruby.

“Da!” Ruby shrieked excitedly, twisting around so she could hug him.

"Hi baby." He took her as she clambered over Pepper's arms. He was out of his suit, in the clothes she'd packed for him in Violet's bag. He cuddled Ruby close, breathing in her hair, before reaching out and tugging Pepper close.

“Welcome home,” she mumbled into his shirt.

"I missed my girls.”

They went upstairs, and Pepper got both of them some food. Tony looked like he was going to fall asleep in his plate. She managed to herd him to bed without much protest. She was tired, Ruby was fussy, so she just put her in the bed between them and took her shirt off so Ruby could nurse herself to sleep.

Pepper closed her eyes for a few moments, and when she opened them again, Tony was still awake and watching her. “Don’t make me call Doc for a tranq dart,” she murmured.

"She's probably already asleep. Some women would find it romantic for their partner to watch them sleep.”

“It would be more romantic if I didn’t think you were so sleep deprived you might start hallucinating soon.”

"I'm going to build suits for the MSF.”

She raised her eyebrows. “For protection?”

"No, the ones like Doc uses, with all the medical supplies. Hospitals in a back pack.”

“Ah.” She smiled at him, tugging the covers a little higher over her shoulder. “I think that sounds wonderful.”

"Good." He was quiet a moment, long enough she thought she might get to sleep, when he added, "And we should fund more hospitals.”

“We do that quite a bit.” Pepper poked him with her foot. “What you really should fund is research.”

He didn't respond. Sometimes he fell asleep in the middle of a conversation. It was aggravating, but she was in favor of him sleeping so -

"I should go talk to Doc," he said abruptly, moving like he was about to get up right then.

She reached over Ruby to grab his arm. “She’s asleep. Like you should be.”

"My head won't turn off," he said, sounding dangerously pouty.

“The baby is asleep between us, so I’m not going to sex you to sleep.”

He snorted a little laugh. "I wasn't fishing.”

“I know, but it usually works so well.”

"It does," he conceded. "Just about the only legal thing that shuts my brain off.”

She wove her fingers into his. She knew he must have a million thoughts and emotions swirling around there, both good and bad. There might be nightmares for a while. “Close your eyes.”

He sighed but shifted around and said. “Okay."

“Picture the beach at the house in Hawaii. Picture it until you can smell the tropical air and hear the sound of the ocean.”

Silence from the other side of the bed. She could hear his breathing deepen and even out and the hand squeezing her loosened. “Just breathe,” she whispered. “Breathe in, breathe out.”

Very slowly, his deep breathing turned into snoring.

He slept for fifteen hours straight.


	19. Chapter 19

Tony had plenty to keep him busy in the next few weeks. Nobody was coming for him, but it was apparent to everyone that it would be a good idea for Bruce to get off the grid while Sharon negotiated with the government. Tony made sure he had someplace to go, and plenty of well hidden funds. 

Then he got to thinking about what Pepper had said about research.

“You said you helped eight people?” he asked Doc one afternoon while he was down there for one of the checkups she made him have at regular intervals. 

"With the serum, yes. That was the initial trial." She typed something on her tablet.

“How much more could you do with it?”

"I got thousands of applications. Most of them were good candidates." After a pause, she looked at him over her glasses. “Why?"

“Could it have other applications, too? I mean, how big are the possibilities?”

She looked vaguely suspicious, but tipped her head back and thought. "I mean, endless, really. I was hoping to move on to people who had other genetic disorders, or people who had been malnourished as children. But there could be other applications. Cellular regrowth, that sort of thing.”

That certainly sounded worthy. “Okay. Do it. Can I put my shirt back on now?”

"Yes. What do you mean, do it?”

He put his shirt back on. “The rest of your research. Carte blanche.”

Her mouth opened and then closed again. A speechless Doc had to be slightly more rare than Halley's comet. "I can't - I need more staff, equipment. Other researchers.”

Yeah, this was totally worth whatever it would cost him. “Whatever you need. We’re going to have to move out of the city anyway. You can have a whole building and fill it with nerds.”

She stared another moment. "Are you fucking serious?”

“Hey, you’re the one who told me Stark Industries needed a biomedical division.”

At that she broke into a grin. "Holy shit, you were listening.”

“Of course I was listening. I always listen.” 

"Sometimes it's hard to tell." She cleared her throat, seeming to get ahold of herself. "I'll put together a plan for getting it off the ground.”

He grinned, hopping off the table. “Do something so awesome the Avengers are the second line on our obituaries.”

"I find that a worthy goal.”

“I was thinking somewhere upstate for the facility. Let me know if there’s anywhere that would work particularly well for you.”

"Ithaca," she said immediately.

He tilted his head. “Cornell?”

"Yep. I'll have a waiting list for medical student interns. My own private army of geniuses." She was now tipping dangerously close to super villain again.

“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”

"You might rue the day," she confirmed with a little, sympathetic nod. 

He chuckled and headed out. On his way upstairs, he asked FRIDAY who was in charge of logistics for their potential new campus location. He still wasn’t used to her instead of JARVIS.

"No one's officially been assigned," she replied. "But Mrs. Bennet appears to be making most of the phone calls.”

“Tell her we need land in Ithaca.”

A beat. "Yes, boss.”

They threw a party for Ruby’s first birthday, and Tony took the occasion to show all the guests the preliminary plans for the compound he was building upstate. It was a mixture of enthusiasm and grumbles about being stuck all the way up in Ithaca. He promised them the property had a lake, and their houses would be really nice.

He spent a fortune to keep construction going over the winter despite the cold up there. They moved out of the tower in the spring, a strangely bittersweet event. Tony didn’t think himself particularly sentimental, but there it was.

"I'm running out of homes," he commented to Pepper their first weekend in the new house. Because he couldn't actually say leaving the tower made him sad.

“You’re running out of homes? You keep building more.”

"True. It's just. . . first Malibu and now the Tower. Becoming a bit of a pattern.”

She fidgeted with the pictures she was hanging. “You told me once that Ruby and I are home.”

That was actually a very good point and made him feel a little better. "Maybe I just don't like change," he muttered, cutting open a new box.

“I think that’s a sign you’re getting old.”

"Those signs are starting to add up." There were more pictures in this box, so he brought them over to her. "Aren't you a little nostalgic? We had good times in that penthouse.”

“We’ll see plenty of it. Or, I will. My office is still in that building.” She glanced at him. “I won’t miss the yack pelt.” 

"I have fond memories of that rug," he informed her tartly.

“We’ll make memories here. I promise. Lots of them.”

He nodded and looped an arm around her waist, tugging her into a hug. "It's good for her to have a yard to play in, right?”

“Yes. With other kids all around. That’s now normal people grow up. She’ll swim in the lake and play in the leaves and can run free in the grass without being stalked by a bodyguard like the the city parks.”

"And when she starts to date two snipers can sit in Clint's tower and monitor all comings and goings."

Pepper looked over at him for a moment. “Would probably do her good to have a sibling.”

His brows went up. “Already?"

“It might be good to just get the hard part over with. Plus I only think I’m going to feel worse and have a rougher time the older I get.”

"Well, I'm not the one doing the heavy lifting," he said, which had practically been his motto during her pregnancy with Ruby. "I love the little booger, so if you want to try for more now I'm all for it.” He hoped that sounded appropriately casual. He really wanted more kids, but he knew the toll Ruby had taken on her.

“I’ll need a nanny who can travel with me,” she said. “That’s a deal breaker.”

He supposed Violet's role was going to have to evolve. “Done."

Pepper smiled. “I’ll call the doctor.”

A couple of weeks later, while she was still working on that, Tony flew to India to retrieve Bruce and bring him back to their supposedly “Hulk Proof” compound. They knew it was bullshit, but somehow Sharon had sold it.

The pick up was a little strange. Of all the random things Bruce could have acquired while in India. . .he’d gotten himself a baby.

“Is this a prank? Did Pepper put you up to this?”

Bruce looked honestly flummoxed. "Why would Pepper-? Never mind. No, it's not a prank. Her mother died and the family didn't want her.”

“So you’re bringing her home like a souvenir?”

"It's called adoption, Tony.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? Or at least have Violet tell Pepper. I have brought, you now. . .stuff.”

He hesitated. "I haven't told Violet.”

Tony stared at him. “You’re shitting me.”

"It's very hard to bring up in an email.”

“Can I sell tickets for when you explain this to her?”

"It's not - It'll be fine. She's very calm about things." Tony wasn't sure which of them he was trying to convince.

“Hundred bucks says she’ll yell. If not slap you.” He noticed Bruce was holding the squirming, squawking baby sort of awkwardly. The one time he’d babysat Ruby as an infant he’d had to call Violet for help. “Here, give me her, she sounds like she needs changing.”

Perplexed, he handed her over. "Seriously, how do you all know that from the crying?”

“Experience.” He set her down on one of the benches in the back of the plane and rifled in the bag Bruce had for supplies. “I had this same conversation with Rhodey the night Ruby was born. I was also baffled. Turned out there was something I didn’t know—I’m me, how often does that happen?”

"Pretty regularly.”

He didn’t dignify that with a response, because he had a diaper to change. A trainwreck of a diaper. “God, what are you feeding this kid?”

"A combination of three different women's breast milk and formula.”

“Pepper has like a gallon of milk in our freezer, I’d have brought some if you’d told me.”

"I have enough for the flight. But I'm sure we'll take it when we get home.”

He probably should ask her first. Women could be weird about stuff like that. He got the baby diapered and wrapped back up, then handed her back to Bruce so he could go fly the plane. “I had no idea you even wanted more kids.”

Bruce hovered in the doorway of the cockpit, bouncing the baby lightly. "We've talked about it, in a hypothetical sense. Violet loves kids. She and her late husband planned to have more.”

“You know, I also have a whole bunch of embryos in a freezer. There will probably be leftovers when Pepper and I are done.”

"I am not taking your embryos, Tony.”

“There’s a whole army of them. Just going to waste.”

"That is not the argument to convince me. You sound like you want to use Violet to incubate your clone army.”

“It sounds way worse when you put it like that.”

"That was the point." The baby had fallen asleep and he sunk into the co-pilot's seat to keep Tony company. "How's the team settling in?”

“Nobody’s blown anything up yet.”

"I suppose that is our baseline.”

“Now that you’re back, we should take a stab at it.”

Bruce sighed. "I'm hoping you mean metaphorically.”

“Of course. We’ve got families to live for.”

He smiled, looking relieved and nodded, cradling the baby closer. "All right. What have you been working on?”

“Have you bee keeping in contact with Doc?"

"She sent me some pictures of the new labs. Said you were more or less behaving. We didn't get into details because I didn't want to get too jealous.”

“I gave her a blank check. You’re welcome to get in on that if you want to.”

With a thoughtful smile, he said, "She did promise to leave me my own wing.”

He was quiet a long moment. “I want to do good.”

Bruce studied him a moment. "You will. You are.”

“Yeah, well. I think my karma’s probably still in the negative right now. And we’re talking about having another kid, so I should fix that.”

This got a delighted smile. "You are? So soon? You're going to have your hands full.”

He shook his head. “Pepper volunteered.”

"Wants to get it over with?”

“It’s not the worst idea.”

"No, I suppose not. I know the last time was hard and I imagine it doesn't get easier with age." He looked down at the sleeping baby cuddled on his chest. "You'll give this one someone to beat up.”

“I like that idea. Our kids being friends and getting into trouble together.”

Bruce grinned. "Some days I still can't believe it's real.”

“Life sure as hell moves on you, doesn’t it?”

"That's for sure." He watched out the window at the clouds passing by. "I don't suppose any of us are where we thought we'd be ten years ago.”

“Ten years ago I was a trainwreck masquerading as a person.” On very dark nights he sometimes wondered if all of this was some sort of fever dream and he was back in that damn desert, slowly dying from a chest full of shrapnel.

"I was a volatile scientist a few months away from the worst day of my life.”

“Not half bad, where we are now.”

They spent the rest of the flight talking science, including the new arm he was working on for Bucky and the other prosthetics he had mapped out. Bruce's specialties neatly straddled Tony's and Amanda's so he was certainly going to be busy. And given how he and Doc tended to butt heads, having Bruce's paradoxically calming presence would only be a benefit.

Violet didn't freak out about the baby, which was slightly disappointing. Still, it was nice to see his friend looking so happy. Tony left them to their reunion, hoping to talk to Pepper before passing out for the next day or two.

She was sitting on the couch, paperwork spread over her lap and the couch cushions. Why there was still actual paper, he’d never know. “Hey, how’d it go?” she called.

"Good. Bruce acquired a baby.”

Now she looked up. “I’m sorry. . . what?”

"There was a baby at the hospital. Her mother died in birth and the family rejected the infant so Bruce adopted her and brought her home.”

“Violet didn’t say a word to me.”

"Violet didn't know." He sank onto the couch next to her. "He told her when she met him at the plane. Didn't yell or anything, it was remarkably anticlimactic.”

“You should make them a BabyPod.”

"I intend to. Some notice would have been nice. I didn't even know he wanted another one." He reached out and rubbed her back. "How're you doing?”

“Tired. You should send them over supplies. Swaddle blankets and clothes, I know the boxes are around here somewhere. Oh—I have a ton of frozen milk. Ruby won’t drink it from a cup, so it’s going to waste.” As much as his, Pepper’s mind was always running.

"I actually offered the milk," he told her, glad he wasn't going to get in trouble for doing so. "If you wanna get the other stuff over maybe we can have Vision run it over. I probably need to sleep soon before the hallucinations start.”

She reached up to ruffle his hair. “You could have gone straight to bed.”

"Figured I'd update you on gossip. Figured you might want to go coo at the newcomer.”

“Newborn baby scent is just the motivation I need to gear up for all the suck,” she replied, giving him a kiss and sending him off to bed.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter runs from [Real Housewives of Avengerville](/works/4742447/) through the overlapping Phase 3 stories ([The Curse & The Blessing](/works/4937506/), [As Much as Nothing](/works/5394206/), [You Remind Me What I Used to Know](/works/6525034/), [Mysteries Explicit and Inherent](/works/6984442/), and [We Can Save Tomorrow If We Try](/works/7184000/))

_August 2018_

Pepper had forgotten how much she hated fertility treatment. Not as much as she hated being pregnant, something that would probably also be worse than she remembered, too.

However much Ruby’s conception had sucked, it had at least worked well on the first try. This time it didn’t go quite that easy. Spring stretched into summer, and cycle after cycle failed. She contemplated stopping. Some days she wanted to. But it mattered a lot to Tony, so she kept going.

They’d started with a dozen embryos, and were down to the very last one. Tony had taken to calling it the Lone Ranger.

“What do we do if this one doesn’t take?” she asked him one night.

He considered a moment. "Being an only child isn't the worst thing in the world. At least, I assume so. If Howard isn't your father." He looked over at her. "Or we could talk about adoption. Seems to be working out well for Bruce and Vi.”

“There is something appealing about not being pregnant again.” She poked him with her foot. “Bruce isn’t related to any of his kids, and doesn’t seem to care. You, on the other hand, have strong opinions about your genes.”

"I concede I like looking at Ruby and seeing my mom's eyes and your nose and such. But we have this big ridiculous family of people completely unrelated to us. I think I can handle a few more.”

“Okay,” she said after a moment, feeling at peace for the first once with the idea of this failing.

Reaching over to rub her back, he asked. "You wanna stop? Just say fuck it and start looking at other options.”

“Well, I’m already taking the meds. Might as well give the Lone Ranger a shot.”

"Maybe with a silver syringe.”

Pepper was pretty sure they used normal tools, but whatever they used, much to their surprise. . . the Lone Ranger stuck. She started on meds to control the sickness before it started, and was starting to feel like this might be okay.

Then they had their first ultrasound. She had no idea what was on the screen, but something on it had caused Amanda’s entire face to change. She went from smiling to poker face. Her Doc face. Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t good.

“I don’t like that face,” Tony said from her left, and she reached out for his hand.

"Just a sec," she muttered. She tapped the machine and wiggled the wand a little in a way that bordered on uncomfortable. Then she leaned back and said, "Huh."

"What the hell does 'huh' mean?" Tony asked.

Amanda looked over at them both. "It means there's two.”

“Two what?” Pepper asked.

"Embryos. The zygote split. You're pregnant with twins.” She turned the screen to they could see it.

All she could do was stare back in astonishment. Then Tony said, “The Lone Ranger cloned himself. That’s my son right there.”

Amanda shook her head. "I love that you managed to take credit for this.”

Pepper stared at the screen. “How terrified should I be right now?”

"Currently, not to much. Everything looks good on the screen and your test numbers are good." She pointed at the line on the screen between the twins. "This right here indicates they have separate amniotic sacs, which is good. A shared one is dangerous. Given you had 5-day blastocysts they are almost certainly sharing a placenta." Pepper didn't know why that meant that, but she trusted Amanda. "There are some possible, but treatable, complications that can cause. You'll need to see a high risk OB. You're on the tall side and you've had a baby before, so I don't think there'll be a problem carrying to term, or close to. We'll probably put you on bedrest at some point, though.”

She rubbed her eyes. “That sounds like fun.”

Amanda gave a sympathetic look. "Clearly, your body felt you needed to cover all possible complications.”

She looked over at Tony. “Does three count as a proper army?”

He was grinning like an idiot, of course, because he didn't have to do the hard part. "It's good enough for me.”

The grin was kind of infectious though. “You better get cracking on the baby equipment. I expect some awesome stuff.”

"You know how I like to make multiple versions. Now I get to make two at once.”

The nausea got the better of her medications not long after that. She had her IVs and her aggressively sugary candy. Unlike last time, she didn’t even attempt to work. Ithaca smelled worlds better than Manhattan, and since they weren’t atop a skyscraper, she could open windows and get some fresh air. 

On the other hand, she had a toddler who wasn’t too happy about how sick she was, and liked to jump on the bed. Tony corralled her as much as he could.

She missed Sharon’s baby shower, which made her sad. She wasn’t well enough to go to the hospital when Joey was born eleven weeks premature—thought she did send Darcy with her creepy looking but amazing breast pump. Tony went over to build their baby furniture and convince Steve to get some sleep.

“It’s really weird to be the Experienced Parent Who Gives Advice,” he commented when he returned. 

“Ten years ago I’d have found even that possibility the most ridiculous thing I ever heard,” she replied. “I’d have found aliens emerging from a portal in the sky more realistic.”

He nodded and bent to kiss the top of her head. "Steve's being a little too Cap about this whole fatherhood thing. I tried to talk him down.”

“You were very ‘I am Iron Man’ about fatherhood yourself.” She did a fake manly voice for the quote and he made a face at her. “Did it help? Your pep talk?”

"I don't know. I think so." He shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. "He's scared and he's not used to being scared. Or at least he's not used to something scaring him that he can't fight.”

“That does sound like familiar territory, doesn’t it.” She held out her hand to him. She wasn’t getting up off the couch—she’d probably puke if she did—but she could hold his hand. “It’s probably good coming from you. He takes you seriously.”

"We make a good team, when we let ourselves. Steve needs people who call him on his bullshit." She gave him a pointed look and he grinned. "I know, I know.”

“Did you tell him? About the boys?”

"I did. He forgot to congratulate me, but agreed two more of me is terrifying.”

“I’m terrified, and I volunteered.”

"You did. You were totally on board, can't blame it on me.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Though you do keep taking credit for the whole cloning thing.”

He gave her that irritatingly cute grin of his. "That's totally my genes at work, come on.”

“I’m going to go throw up now.”

"I will get out of your way.”

Much like her pregnancy with Ruby, the first half was a miserable blur. She started to feel human again around Christmas. Better enough to make Ruby’s holiday fun, at least. It didn’t take much to make a toddler happy.

Ruby didn’t really have a separate playroom, so much as they had a large family room full of toys and play equipment. It was like the inside of a daycare in there. She and Tony liked hanging out together with their kid as much as they could. 

“We should figure out what to call the boys,” Pepper said as they sat among wrapping paper detritus while Ruby explored her _very_ elaborate play kitchen.

Tony seemed to consider the question, watching their daughter sauté two duplo people. "I'd like a junior.”

“Are we going to address him as ‘Junior’?”

"Probably. Anthony when he's in trouble.”

“We can’t name the other one Howard,” she told him, rubbing her belly. “Too reminiscent of that crazy lady who filed a paternity claim back before you were Iron Man.”

"I wouldn't name my child after my father if he came back from the dead and _begged_." He paused. "Maybe a middle name. What about your father?”

She shook her head. “My memories of my Dad are. . . mixed. He more or less drank himself to death after my mother died. Using both his and my mother’s name is a little odd.” She looked at him. “My favorite grandfather’s name was George.”

"George Howard Stark-Potts is a nice, solid name. Would look good signing checks.”

For some reason, that made her laugh. “You don’t think it’s too pretentious? Possibly belonging to a little boy who wears shorts and a sweater-vest with polished shoes?”

"Nah. 'Cause we'll end up calling him Georgie and Ruby'll beat him up so he knows his place."

Pepper looked over at him. "Why can we easily agree on things like what to name our children, but nearly come to blows over things like the color we painted the ceiling?"

"Because we take the serious stuff seriously," he said, lifting a shoulder. "Paint color doesn't really matter, so bickering with you is fun. It's practically how we flirt."

"You think that's pathological? Recreational fighting?"

"Maybe, not necessarily a bad thing. Everyone's relationship works differently. I think ours works, all right."

"Somehow." She looked over at him. "I think we have to. After all these years, we're the only people who would put up with each other."

"That's a very good point. You were very difficult to find."

Ruby was driving her pot full of little plastic dolls around the rug like it was a car, moving among the wrapping paper until she ran into the bag with the rest of the duplos and decided to dump them out. She was her father's daughter all right. "Maybe we _should_ get married."

His brows arched. "I thought the paperwork was a nightmare."

She made a little humphing noise. "It would be. Nevermind."

"I mean, if you wanted to I'm not _against_ it. . ."

"Soul of romance, you are. Ruby, don't eat the wrapping paper," she called. "Ignore me," she said to Tony. "I'm hormonal."

He shrugged. "All right." He reached over and took the delicious paper away from the baby. "I'm happy with the way things are. I don't see how a piece of paper would change that. But if you wanted some sort of ceremony or something, we could do that."

"Honestly, it takes more energy for me to shower these days than it took to stage-manage Sharon and Steve's wedding."

"Well, I wasn't suggesting tomorrow." Waving a vague hand, he explained, "Just putting it on the table."

"Okay, I'm not saying I want to, but if I did, 'I don't care but will do it if you want' might beat Thor's 'How about we do this to make the immigration paperwork easier'." She gestured at the floor. "Look, there's even plenty of trash." 

"You have never expressed interest in getting married before this. I thought we were on the same page in that. I was merely trying to express that if that had changed, I was open to it. Don't blame me for your hormones."

"We are. And my hormones are partly your fault. I'm gestating your clone army here."

"Then I should only be the focus of part of your ire."

She shifted to put her head on his shoulder. "You're a jerk, but I love you."

"I love you, too, Pep."

"Plus if we got married before Violet, she might kill me. And then who will look after you?"

"That's a really good point. Should I start bugging him about that?" Ruby came over with her stuffed dinosaur and climbed in Tony's lap.

Pepper reached to ruffle Ruby's hair. "You'll just bungle it. Remember the whole thing with the apartments?"

"That all worked out in the end."

"Daddy, can I have cookies?" Ruby asked.

He gave Pepper a sidelong glance, "It _is_ Christmas."

*

Tony sat down with Steve in January and they made disaster plans. The change in government made them both nervous, and any instinct they both had simultaneously was something they _never_ ignored. They might have to go to ground. It wasn't likely, but they needed to plan in case.

The single most important thing, for this operation, was money. It bought equipment, and in a worst-case scenario, safety. There was always some corrupt country somewhere that would shelter them for enough cash. After Sokovia he'd begun making arrangements for Pepper's "we might have to go on the lam" concerns, consolidating assets and moving money into safe, off-shore locations. Now he began the laying the groundwork to actually move operational command of Stark Industries overseas. He's lobbied for a nation in a tropical location, but Pepper had won with citizenship.

After the godawful incident with Obadiah, he and Pepper had made an effort to buy back as much of the company as possible, to give themselves more control and privacy. He'd done it out of paranoia, but was glad for it now. The Avengers were incorporated separately, completely private, making it much easier to shuffle assets around without drawing attention.

In the middle of that, was the math of Stark Industries ownership that stuck in his head and wouldn't let go.

"The problem is, there are three of them." He was in his workshop, testing his newest invention, a standing wheelchair. While he worked he chatted with Lani Yee, it's occupant/tester and the new shrink Sam Wilson had brought on board. She was probably analyzing him or whatever while he talked, but he didn't care. She gave useful advice and he liked talking to her.

"Three children," she clarified, sipping her coffee. It smelled strongly of chocolate or hazelnuts or something.

"Yes. When I did the math it was for two. Now there are three. I die, the company splits among them and they each have a smaller portion than the shares outstanding. And they'll be in trust. The board could and probably will take over. We're vulnerable to hostile takeovers. It's a shit show."

"My suggestion would be to appoint a trustee outside the company that will be able to vote and make decisions on the children's behalf, and protect them from takeover."

"My father did that. Left the company in the care of his best friend until I came of age." He pried off a part with too much force and it went flying. "He was great up until he hired some terrorists to torture and kill me. No big deal."

"I was of the understanding that Obadiah Stane had interest in the company. He stood to profit from Stark Industries. You would need to find someone whose interests would be the children and no one else. Hence, outside the company."

He chuckled and sighed. "I put everybody I trust on the payroll." 

"All right, someone you think wouldn't be tempted." She sipped her coffee again. "Off the top of my head, Steve Rogers seems unlikely to suddenly become ruled by greed. Possibly Wanda. Ada is shaping up to be a very level headed girl, if you want to look younger."

"I don't think they'll go all Afghan cave on my kids, but they might be biased about what to sell to pay the estate taxes. Cant sell shares, that'll just dig the hole deeper." He paused. Estate tax. "Shit, I think Pepper and I need to get married." 

"Spouses do get a lot of automatic privilege in the case of death," Lani commented, apparently following his train of thought.

He dug amongst his tools for a smaller screwdriver. "Won't help if we both kick, but let's be real. I'll go first." Where had all his tiny screwdrivers gone? He walked over to Bruce's area to see if any of them were over there. "FRIDAY, would you tell Ms. Potts to look into all that annoying wedding paperwork?"

"Would you like me to phrase it in exactly that manner?" she asked.

"Phrase it however you want, and who took my screwdrivers?" Across the room, Lani was face-palming. "What?"

"Don't phrase it like that, FRIDAY," she said.

"Thank you, Dr. Yee.”

“It’s not a big deal,” Tony told Lani. Then he remembered Christmas. “She is kind of hormonal, though.”

"I'm not really sure how to make 'let's get married so you can inherit my stuff' romantic. But you should probably at least _try_.”

“Let me tell you, Pepper and I have been through some horrifyingly unromantic stuff. Often involving bodily fluids. And not the fun ones.” He gave up on his screwdrivers and stole one from Bruce’s desk. It was for his glasses, but Tony would buy him a new one.

"Just because you've had unromantic moments, doesn't mean you can't make an effort in this instance. If you're serious about getting married, you should do it for real. Pepper's never going to get another marriage proposal.”

He pointed at her. “Not true. According to the Media team she gets five or six a week. People accuse me of fathering their children and ask Pepper to marry them.”

"Did you know that when you're uncomfortable with the question you get pedantic to avoid it?”

“Some days I really don’t like you.”

She smiled sweetly. "Only some?”

Tony turned it over in his head for a while after Lani left. Bruce came down to work and he contemplated asking him for an opinion. Pepper had said something about Violet being mad. He recalled the conversation about children all those years ago and decided he didn’t feel like making Bruce sad today.

It was a nice but ultimately pointless impulse, as not long later Violet showed up, waving around a letter from her dead husband’s mother, who wanted custody of Ada and Neil. And they wouldn’t let Tony sic his lawyers on them.

He spent most of the evening complaining about it to Pepper.

"It's just ridiculous. I can fix this with a couple of phone calls." He slugged back the scotch he was holding. "Nobody could love those kids more than Violet and Bruce.”

“Family relationships are complicated,” she replied. “Like, people you’re stuck with because you share blood. You and I don’t really know what that’s like.”

He'd felt a bit of that with his father. Probably wasn't relevant here. "This isn't about blood it's about spite.”

“And that makes you want to hit back with twice as much?”

"Of course it does, have you met me?”

She laughed. It was a good sound—she’d been really stressed lately. They’d put her on partial bedrest and she’d been doing her job from home. It was hard on her. “Well, if that’s the case it will go downhill quickly. And the they’ll call for the big guns.”

"I suppose so." He huffed a little and sat next to her. "I don't like problems I can't fix.”

She reached out and took has hand, and he put the other one over the boys. He could feel them moving around much more than Ruby at this point—probably because there were two of them. “We’ve got a lot of those lately, haven’t we?”

"Certainly seems like it," he agreed.

“Sometimes people like to sort out their own problems. I know you want to fix everything.”

"I just want to take care of my people.”

“You will.” She squeezed his hand. “Don’t go somewhere dark on me, okay? I need you.”

"No, I know. I'm annoyed, but you're right. There's a long way to go before this gets life ruining. People deal with frivolous lawsuits all the time.”

“I meant the other stuff, too. Your disaster plans. Whatever you and Steve are plotting.” 

Even on bed rest she was fast on the uptake. "I'm hoping the planning will prevent the dark shit."

"Promise me you'll keep me informed? Bad happenings will be easier if we aren't also fighting."

"I'll try. And if you have questions I promise to answer. No more secret bunkers."

"That's good enough for me for now." Her phone beeped and she turned to look at it. "Oh God. More with the table arrangements. Weddings are terrible."

That was not a good segue into his epiphany with Yee. He'd just put a pin in that for now.

"You think Ora would be mad if I didn't want to go?" Pepper asked.

"I think she'd understand." He didn't know the woman much, but she struck him as pretty practical. You had to be to spend that much time with Maximoff.

"I don't want to have to find a dress. Or make small talk."

"It's fine. I'll go and be twice as charming."

He did, in fact, go to the wedding by himself. Rhodey was there, and Vanessa may have been giving him the evil eye. Thor definitely gave him Asgardian Mead.

It was as drunk as he'd been in _years_.

Someone managed to get him home, though he wasn't entirely sure who. He now had a collection of minders who would see him home safely, which had to be a relief to Rhodey. He was with it enough to be quiet going upstairs. Waking Ruby up wouldn't put him in anyone's good graces.

Inside their bedroom, Pepper was sound asleep. He managed to find his way to his closet so he could take his suit off. Trying to hang it up went so poorly he somehow dislodged the bar the hangers hung on, and all of his suits fell to the floor.

He glared at them for a moment, as if to scold them for falling. Trying to clean it up would only make more noise, so he quietly closed the closet door and staggered into bed.

Some part of that must have woken Pepper up, because she rolled over and squinted at him. "Do you know you still have your tie on?"

He glanced down, then fumbled with trying to take it off. "Obviously not."

She laughed and sat up. "Come here, you'll strangle yourself."

Sitting up, he grumbled, "I was trying not to bother you."

"Mmmhmm." She got the tie off and tossed it somewhere. He followed it into the darkness, and when he looked back for a moment there were two of her. Pepper had cloned herself, too. For some reason that was funny. "So have you had a small amount of Thor's mead, or a shit-ton of scotch?"

"First one," he muttered rubbing his eyes roughly. "Possibly too much.”

She watched him a moment, then she asked, “Should I worry about you?”

"Hmm? Oh, no. No. I just got carried away. It was a nice night. Vanessa was icily civil to me. Wilson seems to be getting some. Everyone was happy.”

“Okay.” She leaned over to kiss his forehead. “Get some sleep, you’ll probably be super hung over in the morning.”

He blinked up at her. She really was perfect. She should inherit his empire when he died. “We should get married.”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Goodnight, Tony.”

"I'm serious," he protested, but he was pretty tired and remember his extremely good argument was hard.

“I love you,” she said, sounding like she did when she talked to Ruby. “Goodnight.”

He yawned widely. "G'night Pep.”


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Includes events from [Mysteries Explicit and Inherent](/works/6984442/), and [We Can Save Tomorrow If We Try](/works/7184000/)

_April, 2019_

It was a busy spring. Tony built another one of the hover chairs Lani used so Pepper could move around without, technically, getting up. Only Pepper’s chair was more of a floating plush recliner. She enjoyed the hell out of it.

As a reward for potty-training, Tony build a ball-pit for Ruby right into the family room floor, like a very colorful hot tub. “This isn’t really what I meant when I said promise her a reward.”

"We're gonna have at least a month reprieve from diapers. That's worth a ball pit.”

“You know you don’t have to. . . channel Howard, right? You’re very present in her life, you don’t have to make up for something with money.”

"It's my love language," he told her, in perfect seriousness. "Just because it's unconventional doesn't make it wrong, as long as I learn her languages and respond in kind.”

Pepper blinked. “I’m so surprised you’re apparently reading self help books I am otherwise without a reply.” She paused. “Do I disappoint you because I don’t buy you things?”

"No, your love language is touch and possibly acts of service." He looked over at her. "Lani discovered I like those stupid online quizzes and sent me a bunch.”

“Lani deserves a really nice raise.”

"She does." He studied the ball pit. "I think she should live on campus, but she bought that big house in town.”

“Not everyone enjoys living at work,” she said, though she suspected his line of thinking was more complicated than that.

"We'd all be more efficient if we did.”

After a pause, Pepper asked, “She’s on the lockdown/evac list?”

"She is, yeah. If she wasn't already. . . Sam's on it and I get the vibe he wouldn't leave her behind.”

“Good. I know you’re fond of her.” She paused, hoping she wasn’t about to offend him. “I am particularly fond of the you that talks to her.”

His mouth quirked. "It's noticeable, huh?”

“It. . .yeah. Yeah, it is. You sure as hell have been sleeping better, for example. You’ve handled me being mostly out of commission with far better than last time. I think I might actual take my maternity leave without fear.” 

"Well, then. I should definitely give her a raise.”

“I approve. Maybe you should take her to Geneva. In case there’s drama.” The Avengers had been requested at an event in Switzerland by the King of Wakanda, who was making his first forays into international diplomacy. Pepper was not crazy about him going overseas now that she was getting close to birth. She had a c-section scheduled in May, but since Ruby had been two weeks early, she was worried the twins would be even more so.

"We've been considering it. Steve and I. To be honest, this is supposed to be a fluff PR thing. If there's drama we're just gonna heard everyone onto the jet and bug out.”

“Sounds like a plan. Bring me some Swiss chocolate?”

"As much as I can carry.”

She had the ladies over for an impromptu party while Tony and the rest of the Avengers were in Switzerland. She couldn’t go out much and it made her happy they all were willing to come to her.

Jess was at the house and they were working when the Avengers gave their group interview. It was on all the news channels, so Pepper listened with half and ear. When the interviewer asked Amanda what she wore under her suit to feel pretty, both her and Jess stopped and stared at the TV. 

“Did he just. . .?”

“Yeah.”

Amanda verbally boxed his ears, which led to an awkward moment of dead air while she stared the interviewer down. Pepper waited. “Tony’s going to crack an inappropriate joke in 5, 4, 3. ..”

"Under my suit I wear boxer shorts with pictures of beef, beer, and big wheeled trucks on them so I can feel manly."

That got a snort of laughter, then Jess asked, “How’d you you do that?”

Pepper shook her head. “There isn’t a human being on this planet I know how they think better than that man.” She pointed at the TV. “Also, I need you to _find_ boxers with beef, beer, and trucks on them. Have the fabric printed if you must.”

"On it," Jess assured her.

The questions went around a bit more. Steve ended up dressing the whole room down for the sexism, which would probably make more soundbites than Amanda, but Tony backed him up, which she was absolutely going to reward him for later.

Ten years ago, he’d have been the guy trying to get a woman to flash her underwear.

_Thumbs up on the interview,_ she texted him after it was over.

_I was concerned Doc was going to come over the table and slap a fool._

_I have to hop on a call. I’ll talk to you tonight when you call for Ruby?_ She knew he had an obligatory reception with the King of Wakanda, but he’d make time to come video chat before bed. No matter where in the world either of them went, they each talked to Ruby every day.

_I'll be there. Talk soon._

He called her sooner than expected, to tell her someone had set off Bucky’s Hydra triggers at the reception and he’d beaten a bunch of them up. She tried to call Violet but got voicemail. She did eventually get ahold of Darcy, who already knew and was already organizing, and asked her to find out where Ruby was. Other than that she couldn’t do much more than wait. She couldn’t even go stand on the damn wife line when the jet came in.

Once she got ahold of Violet they decided it was better for Ruby to stay over there for dinner since Pepper was alone and not exactly mobile, and the other women had gone to help. Ora brought Ruby over in the evening, and helped Pepper get her ready for bed.

“Mama I want Daddy,” Ruby told her as she tucked her in. 

“Daddy is flying right now, but when he gets back it will be very late.” Ruby pouted, and Pepper added, “If you go to sleep now, I will wake you up when Daddy gets home. How’s that?” Odds were Tony would come in here anyway.

"O-kay," she said, in the most put-upon voice imaginable. "But you better do it or I'll be grumpy.”

Sometimes, she was all Stark. “I believe you.” She leaned forward to kiss the top of her head. “Goodnight, Ruby.”

"Goodnight Mama.”

Ora hung out with her for a while, and the griped about their pregnancies. It killed some time. When the jet flew over, she insisted Ora go be on the wife line, and then she waited. It took Tony longer than she expected to get back home, and he showed up with a broken nose, a black eye, and one arm in a cast and sling.

"Hi," he said, voice a little nasal. "They snapped Barnes out of it. He's heading home with Doc and Edie.”

This seemed worth actually standing up, enormous as she was. “Hey. Come here.”

He shuffled forward and leaned into her, wrapping his good arm around her. "Hell of a day.”

“I promised Ruby you’d come wake her up for a hug.”

"Then I will feel less guilty about how I was going to do that anyway.”

She went upstairs with him, and sat in her chair by the bed while Ruby crawled into his lap. “Daddy you have boo boos,” Ruby informed him.

"Yes, I do," he said, stroking her hair back. "I was protecting people.”

Ruby wiggled to stand up. “I kiss boo boos.”

"Okay, but very gently."

She kissed his nose and his cheek and his arm gently, though he still flinched each time. Then he tucked her back into bed. She yawned and snuggled her stuffed dinosaur. "Good job winning the bad guys."

Tony managed a smile as he patted her back. "Thanks, kiddo. Get some sleep."

He slept about as badly as Pepper did that night, and they both ended up awake before dawn, finally going downstairs to sit in front of the windows and watch the sun rise over the lake. It reminded her a bit of sitting in the penthouse looking at the skyline.

"It's going to be bad, isn't it?" she asked him.

"Almost definitely. Sharon will do her best to smooth things over. We're lucky no one but the team got hurt. But he was aiming for the king of Wakanda. Not good press."

"Odds of me giving birth in the bunker?"

"Higher than they were a couple days ago," he admitted.

She nodded, absorbing the reality. "I'll make sure everything is finalized with the office in Zurich."

"Thank you." He reached over and took her hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't know this would all come to a head so soon."

She squeezed his fingers. "Sometimes having a big family means you get involved in other people's battles." 

He smiled faintly. "I knew there had to be a downside somewhere."

"We've been through some shit," she said. "We'll be okay." She said that because she had to believe it.

"If all of us stick together, yeah, we will."

*

As soon as it was even a remotely reasonable hour in California the next morning, Tony called Rhodey and told him in no uncertain terms he needed to come to New York and bring his family with him. Having seen the news, he didn't put up much of a fight. He had a similar conversation with Sam Wilson, who lived outside of the compound and had decided himself that he and Lani ought to move behind the walls, at least for now.

He even convinced Maria Hill to temporarily stay on campus. His people would all be safe, and so he could sleep better.

Then Lani showed up in his workshop the afternoon after Wanda's successful attempt to fix Bucky's head, and floated the possibility of doing something impossible—changing the past.

It was a simple concept, really. Take your memories and relive them, but with a chance to act differently. To see a different outcome. To help break the loop of regret constantly playing on the back of your eyelids at night.

He called it simply The Machine, and the work consumed him.

Lani still spent time with him, though less regularly as she had a lot of other heads to get into after the Bucky thing. He wasn't sure if it was planned, or just a product of what he was working on, but he found himself with Doc hovering over his shoulder more than he ever had before. She'd given herself a crash course in neurology to help him work on the interface.

"Hey, can your next AI have a southern accent." 

Of course, late at night they both got a little punchy.

“Are we talking light drawl or full Foghorn Leghorn?” he asked.

"You know there are more options than just that, right?”

He glared at his screen intently. “This would be easier if you’d let me investigate using Vision’s forehead stone.”

"We are not messing with that thing. If we can't make this work with 100% science, then it's not getting done." She tapped his arm. "No shortcuts.”

He knew that. The other half of why she was here was to keep him honest. “So if it works. . . will you use it?”

She traced her line along the line of a brain wave on one of her charts. "I haven't decided yet.”

“What would you look at if you did?”

"I thought about going back to the day I got the scar. As memories go, it's pretty awful. But I got through it, in my own way. On my terms. I'm not sure changing it would do me any good." She shrugged.

“Always look forward?”

"It's got me this far." She looked down at her paperwork again. "Though I could probably do without the whole held captive by Hydra thing.”

He turned to look at her. “What would you change? I recall you being pretty awesome.”

She didn't look at him. "Only time in my life I've ever felt truly helpless.”

“You think you’d feel less helpless knowing the outcome?”

"It would have done me some good to know you guys would find me. That the stalling was doing some good." Putting her paperwork down, she studied the machine a moment. "It's possible to be awesome and still wish it never happened.”

“We would have found you,” he said.

"That was very hard to believe on day five.”

“You know my father searched for Steve? Trawled the ocean floor for months. Was going to mount a land expedition to search the Arctic ice shelf, and got talked out of it. Talked himself out of it. Waste of time, waste of money. I cross referenced the maps once. He was within five miles of where Steve was buried when he stopped.”

Now she looked over at him. "World would have been a very different place if he hadn’t."

“Amanda, if it had taken a billion dollars and the rest of my life, we’d have found you.”

She blinked, clearly taken aback at that. After clearing her throat a couple of times, she nodded. "Thank you.”

“Pardon me, boss,” FRIDAY said, before he could reply. “They’re expecting both of you for a mission briefing in ten minutes.”

"And the moment's over," he said. "Shall we?" he added, with a gesture to the door.

"Yes. I'd hate to be late.”

It was a briefing for a mission Tony wasn’t going to go on, so it was kind of a waste of his time. Though he was skipping it to do something more important, and also even more boring than a briefing he didn’t need to be at.

There was a hearing for the custody case Bruce and Violet were entangled in with her mother in law. He was a character witness. Pepper seemed to find that funny. Tony really wished Violet had let him unleash a swarm of lawyers on the monster-in-law. He had so many it might resemble actual locusts.

For the moment, he was sitting in a dinky little waiting room with Thor while the pre-hearing meeting was going on.

“What if more of us needed safety?”

Thor looked up from his phone, where he was apparently playing Tetris. “What was that?”

“You said you’d take Ada and Neil to Asgard to escape our unfair laws down here. What if the scope was bigger?”

“As I understood it, you and Steve had plans for that.”

"We do, lots. But there's always a bigger fish. And if he shit hits the fan in a way we can't predict. . . I'd like a worst case scenario plan.”

“If it is so bad you feel there is nowhere we can go, then yes. My father’s girlfriend will likely be able to get him to cooperate.” He paused, and looked around the room. “Even if we can’t stay in Asgard, there are several habitable realms. Alfheim or Vanaheim. I have no double we would be welcome there.”

Tony nodded. "It's a last resort," he reiterated. "But it wouldn't be the first time I've needed one of those.”

The door to the meeting room crashed open, and Violet came sprinting out. She passed them and went right out of the building. A moment later Bruce followed. Neither looked at Tony and Thor.

“Should we. . .” Thor gestured after them.

"I - maybe at a slower pace. Give them some privacy.”

His phone rang then—Hendrix playing the Star Spangled Banner, because the entire team had a collective joke about giving patriotic ringtones to Steve. He opened his mouth to make a quip about being entertained while loitering, when he heard the background noise on the call. Sirens and screaming.

"What happened?" he said, all business.

“Rumlow set off a bomb. Wanda tried to toss it and ended up taking out the corner of a building six flights up. It’s. . .bad.” Wanda could contain bomb blasts, but she relied on help from the blast-proof fliers—himself, Rhodey, Thor, Vision—to clear it. Rhodey was in the middle of moving, and the rest of them had stayed in New York for the hearing. It was a blind spot none of them had seen.

"What do you need?" he asked Steve.

“Get everybody home. It’s getting worse here, I think we’re hurting more than we’re helping. I think we’re bugging out, as soon as I can convince Doc.”

Convince Doc was probably going to end up being tossing her over his shoulder. But Steve could get away with that shit. "I'll gather the troops. Keep in touch if you need back up.”

“I will,” he replied. 

When Steve disconnected, FRIDAY said, “Boss, I have video of the mission if you’d like to see it.” 

Thor was watching him with his eyebrows raised.

"Let's go collect Bruce and Violet," he said, feeling very tired. "We need to get back to the compound.”

They got the car and found Bruce and Violet out on the street, briefing them before they all headed back to the compound. The rest of the team got in very late. Most everyone else was asleep, including Pepper, but Tony was wide awake. He went and stood on the wife line with Lani and Zev, who were apparently also waiting up at one in the morning.

"How are you doing?" Lani asked him as he strolled up.

“My usual insomniac self,” he replied.

"I heard Violet and Bruce's meeting went well.”

“Violet told her mother in law off. I can’t quite picture Violet yelling, but it happened.”

"The longest fuses have big bombs." In the distance, they heard the jet coming in. "People are stronger than they appear.”

He sighed, watching the lights come closer. “I sure as hell hope so.”

That night, after the landing and debriefing and dispersement of the team, he and Steve ended up sitting on the Rogerses’ front porch, talking until the sun rose about what might happen next.

“I suppose there are worse places to end up then one of Thor’s other magical realms.” Steve rubbed his eyes. “But this is nuts. We’re being paranoid. I expect it to be bad, but we’re not going to have to flee the planet.”

"This, plus Bucky going off reservation at the summit?" Tony shook his head and slugged back some of his drink. "Someone gonna come at us. And given the current political atmosphere - and the platforms a lot of our shiny new Congresspeople ran on - I'm guessing if it's not Uncle Sam coming, he's not gonna do much to protect us from who is.”

“They need us. I think there will be more saber rattling and headache for Sharon. But the army isn’t going to be at the gate with tanks.”

Sometimes he thought Steve was unbearably naive. But, then, there were those who would say Tony was overly pessimistic. It was why they worked together. Meeting in the middle of the extremes. "There's a lot of ways to come at us without firing a shot.”

Steve gave him a look that indicated he thought he’d wandered into ‘overly pessimistic’. “You’ve done a pretty good job over the years of telling the government to piss off.”

So had he, once or twice. "It was easier when it was just me.”

He glanced back at the house, in what Tony expected was the direction of his son’s bedroom. “Ain't that the truth.”

The best thing about Steve was having someone at his back, no matter what. It had taken a long time to believe that, given how many times he'd believed it about other men only to have them dig the knife in. But at this point, Steve was as close to a brother as he was ever going to have. "I'm sure Asgard is a lovely place to raise a family.”

“We’ll get you a big red and gold metal hat.”

"I'm sure we can hook you up with some sort of magic shield.”

Steve laughed. “There we go.”

There was a pause after the incident in Lagos. Like the calm in the eye of a hurricane. Bruce and Violet finally decided to get married, and Tony saw that every stop was pulled to arrange for an awesome wedding on a week’s notice. It was the second time in his life he was someone’s best man, and he was proud of the fact that he pulled it off without inspiring a long-term antagonistic relationship with the bride.

Though that wasn’t entirely fair. He knew damn well he’d done plenty on his own to piss off Vanessa Rhodes over the years.

It helped that Bruce didn’t drink. And that Tony had finally, entirely, figured out how to be an adult. Probably good timing. Pepper’s c-section had been scheduled for next week, and he’d finally get to meet his boys.

His sense of calm lasted all the way into the next morning when Sharon Rogers showed up at his door and everything went to hell.

"General fucking Ross?"

"Technically, he's Secretary of State fucking Ross," she replied with a sigh watching him pace the length of the living room. "And before you ask, no, I was not given room to negotiate.”

“There is _no_ reason for everyone to be there. Me and Steve. You. Maybe Nat and Doc. At the most.”

"I was not given room to negotiate," she repeated.

“I am not making Bruce cancel his damn honeymoon because _that_ man says jump.”

Sharon rubbed her forehead. “I will go tell the Banners myself. In the mean time, feel free to go over to my house and you and Steve can yell in agreement at each other.” 

He felt a little pang. She was almost certainly going to have to have this conversation ten more times today. They were a group that liked to kill the messenger. Clearly taking his silence as acceptance, she let herself out the door. So Tony marched across the yard to the Rogers' place.

Talking to Steve tempered his annoyance, though he did go to the next days meeting as late as possible and sort of had to be dragged by Amanda.

Part of him had always expected to look up and watch a portal open in the sky, and armageddon come pouring out. Pepper told him not to look for disaster every sunny afternoon. But here they were, on a sunny spring day, listening to Ross bring their world crashing down. He blew right past the worst case scenarios Tony and Steve had concocted.

And then it got worse.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next two Chapters take place during [Truth is Marching On](/works/7876339/).

Pepper was minding her own business, hanging out in her recliner watching TV and enjoying the most relaxing part of her maternity leave—the part before birth—while Ruby took a nap. The pedantic-ness of daytime TV made her seriously consider calling Jess and asking her to come over with work.

Then Tony came storming in, looking as agitated as she’d ever seen him. “Where’s Ruby?”

She sat up a little. “Did the meeting go badly?”

“Where. Is. Ruby.” The words came out through gritted teeth.

Okay, now he was scaring her. She hit the button for the chair to tilt her to stand up; she couldn’t get up on her own. “Upstairs sleeping. Why—“ He whirled on his heel and sprinted up the stairs. She hit a different button so she could follow, but the chair wasn’t exactly speedy. “FRIDAY, what the hell is going on?”

"Secretary Ross has left the premises. The team is gathering spouses and children to discuss the contract he delivered. It has several questionably legal sections."

Pepper finally got upstairs, and found Tony standing in the doorway of Ruby’s room, watching her sleep. Now she did get out of her chair, going to stand next to him. Carefully she reached to touch his arm.

Immediately, he covered her hand with his. "It was worse than we thought," he said softly.

“Tell me,” she said, almost afraid of the answer.

"Ross gave us a packet to sign. They want more control, more oversight. Want the enhanced people to go to DC for regular assessments." He took a shaky breath. "And they want to monitor the kids.”

She stared at him. “What do you mean, ‘monitor them’?”

"Subject to registration and monitoring." The tone he said it in indicated it was a quote. "They think the kids are dangerous and want to keep track of them. Ruby was on it, Edie, Joey. Ada. They included you and Ora until such time as your pregnancies were over.”

Her mouth opened and closed. “How can children be dangerous? And there’s no possibility of Ruby being enhanced. And Ada’s not related to anyone.”

"I'm not technically enhanced and I cause plenty of problems.”

She could not deny that. “If they’re worried about troublemakers they’ve got the wrong Marsh kid.”

"I think you underestimate Ada, but Neil I agree. Neil's not going to go through life without ending up on a watch list somewhere.”

George and Junior were engaged in some sort of wrestling match against her ribcage, and she leaned against the wall and waited for them to stop. “So. . .I should pack?”

"For now, we should head downstairs. We're having an all hands meeting to discuss options.”

“I should call Legal,” Pepper said. Stark Industries had a fleet of lawyers of every stripe.

"I already had Darcy call the lawyers," he told her, helping her back to her chair. "But we were given 24 hours to give an answer. I don't know what happens when we say no.”

This was really not the conversation she wanted to be having a week away from having twins. But she didn’t mention that to him. He had enough to worry about. “Whatever it is, we’ll handle it.”

"Yeah, so we all keep reassuring each other.”

It didn’t take long into the meeting for everyone to agree leaving was their only option. The King of Wakanda conveniently offered the whole lot of them somewhere to go. Pepper found the entire situation a little suspicious, but they didn’t have much by way of options. And so an hour or two before dawn the following day, she and Ruby and everyone else—and as much stuff as people could pack in that kind of hurry—were loaded onto a giant cargo plane that Tony apparently had parked on the property.

She was exhausted and hormonal and in pain and just generally so, so, unbelievably pregnant. Which was how she ended up shouting at Tony about Star Trek while he was trying to fight off government forces hot on their tail. Feeling only miserable, she took Ruby and found the little cabin that had been assigned to them and laid down. They barely fit.

She closed her eyes and reminded her body that labor would not help anything.

Sleep alluded her, though Ruby passed out pretty quickly. Tony stuck his head in about an hour later, still in most of his suit. "Can I bring you anything?" he whispered.

“You okay?” she whispered back.

"Just fine. We're keeping any eye out in case anyone tries to follow us.”

He didn’t look all that fine, but she didn’t have the capacity to poke at him. He was in Iron Man mode, anyway. There would be plenty of time to deal with it later. “Be careful,” was all she said.

"Of course," he said immediately. "I'll come check on you again later.”

She waved, and he ducked back out. 

The flight was twelve hours long, and Amanda made Pepper get up regularly and walk around. Something about blood clots forming in her legs. It was strange being ordered to walk, after so long being told _not_ to walk. Tony mostly looked after Ruby, so Pepper could rest. She had the sense there were more emotions she was supposed to be having right now, given the degree her life had turned upside down. But she could bottle just as well as Tony. They were a matched set sometimes.

And walking around freely—back ache or not—really did make her feel like a human being again. Even if she did spend most of the day dealing with a tantrumming toddler whose circadian rhythms and routines had been trashed.

Their bed at home was adjustable, which made it much easier for her to sleep. The one Wakanda was not, requiring her to request a mountain of pillows just to get comfortable. It was only out of sheer exhaustion she slept that night.

She'd hoped for a few hours, and was surprised to find full sunlight pouring in when she woke. The boys had started wrestling, kicking and elbowing every internal organ. After a trip to the bathroom she went out into the living room of their suite. Ruby was playing with blocks on the floor in front of the sofa-like-thing. “Tony? Where are you and do you have food?”

A hand popped out from over the top of the couch, holding a plate piled with fruit. "I have not abandoned you and our young," he said. His voice was raspy, though, indicating he'd probably been napping a little.”

She took the plate and then came around the couch, sitting at the end by his feet—which he helpfully moved. She reached over and rubbed his ankle. “Hey.”

"Hey. Still weird to see you up and walking. Feel like I should be lecturing you.”

She chuckled. “So. Now that the immediate crisis seems to be dealt with, I need to figure out how I’m going to have these babies. Seeing as it needs to be, you know, soon.”

"Mmm. Amanda's been talking to the royal hospital staff. We have a tour of their labor and delivery department this afternoon. Should probably get all that sorted out then.”

“Thank you for setting that up.” She turned and studied him. “Have you slept?”

He shrugged noncommittally. "Naps here and there. Too much going on.”

There was no arguing with stubborn face, but she tried anyway. “It’s only going to be even busier with newborn twins.”

"I know. I remember the early days of Ruby." He paused, brow furrowing. "Sort of.”

“So try and get some sleep? Please?”

"Soon as I have a chance.”

He ended up gone most of the morning, dealing with the various layers of this mess. Pepper checked in with Jess, just to update her and find out how things were going. After she’d gone on full bedrest, Lani had convinced her to officially appoint Stark Industries’ COO as interim CEO until the end of her maternity leave, something she was exceptionally grateful for right now. One less thing for her and Tony to worry about.

Amanda showed up after lunch to walk with her down to the car that would take them to the hospital. “How are you guys holding up?” Pepper asked her.

"Best as can be expected, I think. Edie thinks it's all a grand adventure now that the plane is over. I'm writing reference letters for my lab staff and trying to find them placements with people I know. James is. . . being a stoic man from the thirties, unfortunately.”

“Ruby is used to traveling so she thinks this is normal. Tony isn’t sleeping. And I am _so_ done with being pregnant.”

"We will get that c-section of yours rescheduled as soon as we can," Amanda promised.

“Remember when I went on bedrest, and you told me you hoped they’d at least stay in there until 34 weeks?”

"I shouldn't have said it out loud. They're Tony's sons, they're going to be pains in the ass.”

Pepper laughed. “But see if you can talk to him about sleeping. He listens to you.”

"I'll give it a shot. Or give him a shot of something and skip the battle of wits altogether.”

Pepper liked Amanda.

The maternity hospital, like everything in Wakanda, was amazing. They were met by the hospital administrator and an interpreter for a tour. She was introduced to the man who would be her doctor—she didn’t get a choice, as he was the only surgeon who spoke fluent English. Complications in pregnancy were relatively rare here, and most women delivered with a midwife, in little suites that reminded Pepper of an expensive Japanese spa. 

There were no epidurals or anything of that nature, because apparently giving birth was a Warrior Task and Wakandan women prided themselves in powering through.

She leaned over to Tony and whispered. “Am I crazy, or is it nice to find a flaw with this place?”

Nodding, he whispered back, "I was starting to get a little suspicious Rod Sterling would be showing up.”

“Surgery isn’t a Warrior Task, is it?” Amanda asked. 

The doctor laughed. “Of course not. Come, I will show you our surgery suite.”

Pepper found the operating room strangely spa-like, too. Amanda geeked out over equipment and order Tony to make a mental list of things she wanted him to figure out how to make. Pepper was happy that she wouldn’t have to be strapped to the table, and could hold and nurse her babies as soon as they were born. Apparently Wakandan women who had c-sections liked to watch the birth, but Pepper thought that was a little. . .much.

Then she had a scan, with an ultrasound-like machine that put Tony’s 3D machine to shame. You could see their faces. . .their eyelashes. Everything.

"They look just like me," Tony said brightly, standing at her head.

"They'll outgrow that," Amanda told him without missing a beat. He turned and made a face at her. 

“Everything looks well,” the doctor said. “There is no urgency, so perhaps you would like a few days to settle in before your surgery?”

She cast a desperate look over at Amanda, who promptly put on doctor face. "I think it would be good for Pepper's state of mind to schedule the surgery. Everyone does better with a light at the end of the tunnel.”

He sighed. “We can schedule it now, but we will need some time to prepare, order medications and such. We’re not used to non-Wakandan patients. Your arrival was abrupt. We can put you under in an emergency of course, but I don’t think that’s the first choice.”

Pepper sighed. “No. I understand.” She was just going to be pregnant forever. It was fine.

Tony rubbed her back in little circles. "Almost there, honey."

“In the mean time we will have our prenatal services visit you. They’ll get your home set up for the arrival, arrange your aftercare, and someone will come each morning for a massage.”

Pepper looked back at him. That sounded appealing. “I accept your terms.”

He grinned at her phrasing and peeled off with Doc to discuss logistics while Pepper and Tony made their way out of the wing. "I've never seen Doc giddy before," Tony commented.

“She was pretty giddy setting up her Ithaca lab,” Pepper replied. 

"That's true." He sighed a little. "Maybe they'll let us build one here.”

For a moment she could see the weight of everything, carved in the lines of his face. Regret and fear and grief. Exhaustion. She reached for his hand. “We will. We’ve rebuilt before. You like new things, anyway.”

"I do," he conceded, not sounding entirely convinced. Then he seemed to perk a little. "And Wakanda has new things I've never seen. I don't even have to build them.”

“No, but you will almost assuredly take them apart.” She was happy that got him to smile. 

He tucked an arm around her waist. "You want to stop by the kitchen and get more food?”

“Always.”

It took a week before Pepper could get her c-section scheduled. She spent most of it getting massages and floating in a warm pool—there were lots of pools. Tony was working. He’d unpacked The Machine and there was some intrigue the team was involved in. At one point, Clint and Nat actually left Wakanda to run down a lead somewhere in Europe. Pepper was going to have to go to Switzerland at some point, but she’d worry about that after the babies were born.

The evening before she was to finally, _finally_ give birth, Tony came back to their rooms and told her the entire team had to go to Siberia in the morning.

"Apparently, there are more Winter Soldiers. Nat thinks whoever triggered Bucky is waking them up. That's why they triggered him, to get information on them.”

“My birth is being canceled due to world-saving?” She’d put that clause, about refunding vacations wrecked due to having to save the world, in the Avengers manual as a joke, but it stuck.

"Not cancelled. Just slightly delayed. With any luck we'll find them neutralize them and be home with plenty of time.”

She so wanted to tell ask him to stay, but knew just as much she couldn’t. She’d just make him feel bad if she complained, and she didn’t want him distracted. He still wasn’t sleeping. So all she did was sigh. “Please be careful.”

"I promise," he said sincerely. "It'll be the whole gang. Lots of people to watch my back.”

“Good, because if you die I will be forced to sell our children to the circus.”

"Keep one of them to pass the company to.”

“No, I’m going to loot it for it’s assets and go live in the Cayman Islands.”

He paused, considering that. "Yeah, that's fair.”

She’d made him smile, which was what she wanted. “I love you. Go be a hero.”

"I will," he said, kissing her. "Then I will come home and be a dad.”

He was still in Siberia when her labor started.


	23. Chapter 23

Sleep deprivation made a person crazy. It was used as a torture method. Tony knew that, yet occasionally managed to convince himself he could somehow muscle through. He could fight biology, fight his brain’s need for REM sleep to function properly, by sheer force of will.

Sleep deprivation made a person crazy, and do crazy things. . . like beating the crap out of the closest thing you had to a brother, for example.

Had Doc not stopped him he wasn't sure how far it would have gone. How bloody Steve would have let him beat him. It felt good in the moment, a focus for all the pain and rage. But when it had passed, he just sort of felt sick. Crying into Amanda's sturdy but sympathetic shoulder had seemed the only rational thing to do.

He’d missed his sons’ birth. Pepper was down in Wakanda alone, and he was in Siberia, doing this. It had all been for nothing, too. 

Amanda went to put Bucky’s shoulder back into it’s socket, and Tony went to put his suit back on. It was cold as shit. “FRIDAY?” he asked. “What’s the status on the rest of the team?”

“They have been taken into custody,” FRIDAY replied. “King T’Challa took Col. Rhodes back to Wakanda as he was injured.”

“How bad?” He should have turned around. All of this would have been better if he’d turned around. He met Amanda’s eyes, seeing her clearly having a similar line of thought.

“All I’ve got is that he’s stable and and being treated in Wakanda.”

“That’s as best as possible at this point,” Amanda told him, eyeing him like she was concerned she’d have to hug him again.

How much worse was this god-awful endless day going to get?

By sheer force of determination he stayed on his feet long enough to load into whatever POS military surplus plane the Chessmaster had parked outside. He even made noise about flying it before Amanda shoved him out of the chair and Bucky took his place.

That left him in the back with Steve. Who he really didn’t feel like making conversation with. He’d still fucking lied to him.

Amanda hovered in his line of sight. “How long have you been awake?”

"Couple days."

"Anthony Edward Stark, don't make me use my Mom Voice."

"Since before we got to Wakanda."

"Mother fucker," she muttered. He hoped that wasn't Mom Voice. "I'm giving you a sedative."

"I don't want -"

"I don't give a shit what you want, I'm your doctor. If were anyone but who we are I'd be hospitalizing you as a danger to yourself.”

“You’re just doing this because I cried,” he muttered as she stabbed him with a needle. The last time he cried it was because of Pepper, too. She’d been mad at him. He wondered if she was mad at him now.

"If you lie down and be still we can agree never to speak of that again.”

His eyelids were getting heavy, anyway. He wanted to come up with a witty reply, but. . .

He woke up an indiscriminate amount of time later, in a very comfortable bed, in what was definitely not a plane. Glancing around, he spotted another bed, this one containing Pepper nursing a baby. “Hi."

She turned her head towards him. “Sleeping beauty awakes.”

"How long was I out?”

“I don’t know, but you’ve only been in here for an hour. Some part of the flight, too?”

"Amanda gave me a sedative before we took off." He sat up and scrubbed his hands over his face. "Those our boys?” Now that he was sitting he could see she was nursing both of them at once, something he found impressive.

“I’d make a joke, but you’re addled,” she replied with a smile. Because who else’s babies would she be nursing? “Yes. Come see them.”

With even less grace than usual, he managed to clamber out of bed and over to hers. "Hello, boys," he said, scooping up the one not currently on her boob. "I heard you made quite the entrance.”

The baby yawned, and Pepper said, “That’s Junior.”

"Hi buddy." He lifted him close and kissed the peach fuzz of dark hair on his head. "I'm Dada.”

Pepper reached up and touched his face, running her thumb over his cheekbone in a way that made him suspect there might be more fucking tears happening.

"It was a rough day," he said voice hoarse.

“I know. Amanda filled me in after she brought you in. And on top of all of that, we’re now outnumbered by our children.” She was trying to make him smile, so she must not be mad at him.

Despite how long he'd slept, he was exhausted. A little clearheaded at least. "Well, we probably have a few months before these two really learn how to combing forces with Ruby.”

Pepper nodded. “She’ll want them to be at least crawling before she drafts them into her army.”

"And I won't let her arm the baby pods.”

She reached to take Junior from him. “Here, swap with me.”

It required more coordination than he really had but they managed to switch babies so Junior could nurse and he was holding George. "You look good for a day post-surgery," he told her.

“They have a tissue regeneration set up. Like Dr. Cho’s. . .only better, because apparently everything is better in Wakanda. Check this out.” She leaned back, lifted up her shirt and tugged her pants down a little. A faint line of new pink skin beneath the post-baby bump was the only evidence she’d had any surgery at all. 

"Huh." He craned his neck to peer at it. "This really is a magical place.”

“They told me once my stomach has gone back down they can fix the stretch marks and other unfortunate things that happen to skin when it expands to accommodate two babies at once.”

He wondered if that meant they could do something about the enormous scar on his chest. It was probably too old, and not an anthill he wanted to dig up right now. But interesting. "So, I know I'm not in a position to be making bizarre requests. But I have a bizarre request.”

She chuckled. “After all these years, Tony, I can’t imagine what still qualifies as ‘bizarre’.”

That was probably a good point, but he liked trying to surprise her. Kept their relationship fresh. "I want to change Junior's middle name.”

“He won’t, _technically_ , be a junior, then.”

"I know, but we'll probably still call him such to prevent confusion.”

“Fair enough. I don’t think that’s bizarre, though. Unless you want his middle name to be Beezlebub or something.”

"Don't tempt me." He cleared his throat. "I want to name him after Amanda.”

Pepper blinked. “You want his middle name to be Amanda?”

"Yes." As he said it, he realized that was probably not going to work. But he was committed now so he plowed forward.

She was eyeing him. “Did you. . . lose a bet, or something?”

"No. No. I just. . . I'm pretty sure I'd be dead or have done something very stupid if she hadn't been there." No need to mention the hugging. "And it's not the first time she's saved me from myself. I know that that describes like, half the people I know but. . . " He shrugged. "It's just something that feels right to do.”

She watched him with that knowing face of hers. “How about Newbury? It’s obviously a last name tucked in there for people will assume family reasons. No teasing.”

Any woman who hyphenated her name had to be proud of her maiden name. He nodded. "That works.”

She moved over and made more room for him next to her, and they sat for a little while, admiring and cooing at their boys. The babies eventually fell asleep, and he took them over to put them in their Pods, which someone had clearly brought over. 

“Go see Ruby,” Pepper told him. “Go see Rhodey. And then go rescue the team.”

The idea made him even more exhausted. But the job wasn't done and he needed to get off his ass. "Yes, ma'am," he said, kissing her as he climbed out of bed. 

Rhodey was in the room next door, so he stopped there first. He was watching TV in his hospital bed, and turned to look at Tony. “God, you look like shit.”

"I missed you, too, sweetheart.”

“You bring those bionic leg braces you were working on for Lani?”

"I brought everything." And thank God and stubborn shrinks he'd spent so much time working on them. "We'll get you suited up in no time.”

Rhodey sighed. “They could have held them off and gotten away. They surrendered because Sam needed a backboard for me.”

"We'll get 'em back," Tony said with more certainty than he felt. "Sam made a call that saved lives. Yours and the kids we were fighting.”

He nodded, and was quiet a moment. Then he looked back up. “You. . . might want to stay away from Vanessa for a little while, though.”

And they were just starting to get along. "Yeah. I know the drill.”

After that he collected Ruby from Violet, just standing in the hallways for the longest time with her arms wound around his neck. “I missed you Daddy.”

"I missed you, too, princess." He sighed and breathed in her scent. "Did you get to meet your little brothers?”

“Auntie Violet took me. They’re squished. Like play-dough.”

"Well, they were very crowded in Mama's tummy. They'll stretch out now.”

“Good.” She snuggled against him, and he decided to take her with him while he met with the rest of. . .well, everyone, to try and figure out how to break into the damn RAFT. He’d helped build the stupid thing, he knew how hard it would be.

The plan they came up with was. . . insane.

On the bright side, he got to outfit Lani's wheelchair with more weapons than any sane person would need. Turning a wheelchair into a tank had to be on his bucket list somewhere.

He stood with Amanda and Bucky as they watched Lani and Zev fly off. "Are we going to have to go save them?" he asked, mostly to himself.

"Lani get's you to talk about feelings," Amanda replied. "I firmly believe she can do anything.”

They went back inside to wait with everyone else. “I’d feel better if we had more firepower.” He gestured at the windows. “Where the hell is Thor? Jane went up there looking for him like a week ago.” 

“She went up to tell him we were safe in Wakanda,” Amanda said. “You’d remember stuff like that if you slept sometimes.”

“We shouldn’t have sent up the only person who could call him,” Steve said.

Tony made an annoyed noise. “Vision can call up there. He’s just. . . on the fucking RAFT.”

From across the room where the kids were playing, a blonde head popped up. “You need to Thor?” Ada asked.

Upsetting the kids wouldn't do anyone any favors. "No, honey we were just. . . lamenting the fact we couldn't if we needed to.”

She gave them a look that indicated she thought they were idiots, rolled her eyes, tipped her head back and bellowed, “Heimdal!” at the ceiling.

A moment later, the Bifrost blasted down, taking off a corner of the lanai outside and sucking most of the lounge furniture upwards. Ada clapped her hands over her mouth. “I forgot he told me never to do that inside.”

For a moment, they were utterly silent. Then, to his surprise, Tony started to laugh. Possibly for the first time in days. 

*

Two disabled people staged the greatest jailbreak in history. Everyone made it back to Wakanda safely. Pepper went home from the hospital. Copious postpartum support was so ingrained in the culture here that it steamrolled right over Tony’s weirdness about staff. She was more rested and relaxed with twins than she had been with just Ruby. Tony had even made up with Steve and Bucky.

Pepper was dozing while the twins took a rare simultaneous nap, when Tony came in and rudely woke her. She made a face at him, which he seemed to ignore.

Instead he pointed at her. “I told her. And it kind of made her cry a little.” He sounded _very_ proud of that.

"You made Amanda cry. Congratulations."

"It sounds ugly when you say it." 

She could tease him more, but she didn’t. She knew this meant a lot to him. “I knew she’d be touched.”

"She was." He laid down on the bed with her. "Rhodey's testing out his braces in a couple days, and Amanda is working on a new serum formula to help him heal.”

“Good.” She put her head on his shoulder. “Slowly we lurch towards figuring out the future.”

"Today is the first day it feels like we have a future." He rubbed her back, fingers tangling in her hair. "At least to me."

"Now we just have to figure out what it looks like."

"Yeah," he said softly. "Sharon said she'd start working on finding us some sympathetic countries to visit."

"We can build yet another house," she told him.

"I could. T'Challa's found me some lab space. Their equipment is very fun to dismantle."

"And then you'll build new things. Just think what you can do with all this vibranium. Your father would be so jealous."

That made him grin. "He _totally_ would."

Pepper chuckled. She really did know how he ticked. "We can make a life anywhere, the. . .well, five of us, now."

"Five. Jesus. We're so outnumbered."

"More children than we have hands," she agreed.

He leaned over and kissed her temple. "We'll figure it out. We've been through worse."

"Isn't that the truth," she murmured, and snuggled against his chest. This was a nice place to nap, so she closed her eyes.

There was a stretch of silence, then he said, "We should get married."

Pepper cracked an eye open reluctantly. "There's no estate tax in Switzerland. Or Wakanda."

"I know. But. . . we should still get married. Because I'd like to be married to you."

She sat up, so she could look at him. She actually wanted to see his face. "Are you serious?"

He folded his hands over his stomach and looked up at her. "Entirely. Virginia Ann Potts, will you marry me?"

"You are serious." He even looked serious. And completely sober. She reached out to feel his forehead.

"You can just say no," he told her, sounding more amused than offended. "Though I'd prefer you didn't."

She was going to say yes, she should just say it—they had three children together, it's not like she had freedom to maintain. And anyway she adored him. The paperwork would still be a huge mess. But one really shouldn't dawdle when a man was proposing. It was in the Woman Handbook. And yet she found herself asking, "Why now?"

"Because we're outnumbered. Because I'm tired of almost dying and regretting I didn't. Because the reasons not to seem less important everyday. Because I'm never going to stop doing stupid shit but I'm also never going to stop loving you and we should have some sort of ceremony to commemorate that."

She couldn't fathom why her eyes were mysteriously blurry for a moment. She had a lot of crazy hormones going on right now. "Okay. Yes. As long as you promise never to call me Virginia again."

"You have my word as a Stark."

She leaned over to kiss him. "And you should get me a ring."

"I will get you a fantastic ring."

*

They got married in the fall, on the palace grounds, in an outdoor ceremony that was a little like a bookend to a crazy six months. Bruce and Violet's wedding had been the very last event of their lives in New York.

He was building a house in Wakanda, and had bought one in Zurich. They had already been granted admittance to most of the rest of the world, aside from the places too loyal to, or afraid of, the US. Switzerland was happy to have their business, as was Germany. Stark Industries opened a facility in Stuttgart, of all places. His life had a way of looping around. 

Steve tagged along on one of his trips during construction, and the two of them sat on the edge of the fountain in front of the museum where they'd first fought Loki, eating mystery food from a street cart and marveling at how the better part of a decade had gone by.

"You think the men we were that night would recognize us now?" Tony asked, sipping his beer.

"No. You were still a professional asshole and I was still trapped in the 1940's."

He nodded. "Now I'm only an asshole as a hobby."

"I think the only thing they _would_ believe is what happened in Siberia."

They hadn't really talked about that directly. Still dancing around it from the side. "Beating the shit out of each other? Yeah, that would sound about right."

"The Captain America of the 1940's was fighting on the side of the angels. It was good and evil, clear and sharp. I makes me instinctively think I know what's right. Even when I don't."

Tony sympathized. "I remember the day I figured out the bad guys didn't wear black hats and twirl mustaches. Took a long time to come to terms with it all." On bad nights his brain played back the sight of his mother being strangled, over and over again. Until he had to get out of bed and build something to chase it away. "If I'd been in your shoes I don't know what I would have done."

"I do. You're a great many things, Tony, but a coward isn't one of them."

"Well," he conceded. "Not anymore."

"Wanda told me so I would handle the messy business of telling you guys, and I just. . .didn't. It was chickenshit and I'm sorry."

Tony nodded slowly. "You're allowed to fuck up, on occasion. In fact, the rest of us appreciate the glimpses behind the perfect facade." He smacked him lightly on the arm. "You've given me enough second chances. I can spot you this one."

"Thanks. I think if either of us tried to drive his bus alone, we'd crash."

"Absolutely." He knew that deep in his bones. "We balance each other out."

"And I believe we'll get us home one day."

"I think it's more likely one of our women will get us home one day. But yeah. This isn't the end of it all."

Steve laughed. "Fair enough." He looked up at the sky. "One day the petty infighting will be dwarfed by something bigger, and they'll need us again." 

"I've been saying that for years."

"And I'm saying I think you're right."

Theirs was never going to be a docile relationship. "For now, I'm going to enjoy the peace. Everyone is safe and getting settled." He gestured to the sky, sunny and clear at the moment. "And it's a beautiful day."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last full chapter. An epilogue will post next week.


	24. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call it the post-credits scene.

_June 2020_

New projects always kept Tony busy, and in Wakanda he had plenty of time on his hands. His boys were fun to make things for. They were starting to walk, for example, and needed containment STAT. But he didn't want to stifle them. It was a labor of love.

One afternoon while working on a miniature hover car—the opposite of containment, yes, but he'd sell Pepper on it—Ada Banner appeared in his lab. He had no idea how long she'd stood in the doorway, silent as a tomb, waiting for him to notice.

Certainly long enough to hear him _very_ badly singing along with the Wakandan interpretation of rock music. He actually jumped when he saw her. "Jesus. Hi."

"Do you remember when we were in the bunker and you offered to build me whatever I wanted because I had saved JARVIS on my iPad?"

"I do." She'd begged him for a deep space telescope. They'd had the spot for it all picked out in Ithaca. "You coming to collect? I don’t know that T’Challa will let me build a telescope.”

“Wakanda has plenty of great telescopes. And anyway I don’t need one. I have Heimdal.” Ada was remarkably casual about her friendship with the Asgardian Gatekeeper. "You remember you said you'd build me my own suit?"

He grinned, though Violet was probably going to kill him. "Yep, decided you want one?"

She came further into the room, staring at him very intently. "I want you to teach me how to build one."

He looked down at her a long moment, studying the stubborn tilt of her chin and the slightly defiant cock of her hips. Everybody liked Ada. She was hard to dislike. But every so often he got a glimpse of the adult she was becoming. Smarter than everyone in the room and constantly waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.

Violet was absolutely going to kill him.

"Okay," he said with a nod. "We'll start right now."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ends the last full-sized fic of Tales From the Tower.
> 
> Read on to [_Turn, Turn, Turn_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8507575/chapters/19497460) for the series-wide epilogue, and launching off point for _Tales From the Tower, the Next Generation_ , the link to which I'm adding at the end of that one.
> 
> Missing Floors will remain open indefinitely for any odds and ends we cook up.


End file.
